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BARRATT 


Barratt's  Chapel  and 
Methodism 


PAPERS  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  DELAWARE 

LVII 


BARRATT'S  CHAPEL 
AND   METHODISM 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  BEFORE 
FORTY-THIRD  WILMINGTON  ANNUAL  CON- 
FERENCE, AT  ASBURY  METHODIST  EPISCO- 
PAL CHURCH,  WILMINGTON,  DELAWARE,  ON 
FRIDAY,  MARCH  17th,  1911 


BY 

HON.  NORRIS  S.  BARRATT 

Judge  Court  of  Common  Pleas  No.  2,  Philadelphia,  First  Judicial  District 

of  Pennsylvania  ;  Member  of  the  Historical  Societies  of 

Delaware,  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia 


THE  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY  OF  DELAWARE 

WILMINGTON 

1911 


PAPERS  OF  THE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY  OF  DELAWARE 

LVII 


BARRATT'S  CHAPEL 
AND   METHODISM 


HISTORICAL  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  BEFORE 
FORTY-THIRD  WILMINGTON  ANNUAL  CON- 
FERENCE, AT  ASBURY  METHODIST  EPISCO- 
PAL CHURCH,  WILMINGTON,  DELAWARE,  ON 
FRIDAY,  MARCH  17th,  1911 


BY 

HON.  NORRIS  S.  BARRATT 

Judge  Court  of  Common  Pleas  No.  2,  Philadelphia,  First  Judicial  District 

of  Pennsylvania  ;  Member  of  the  Historical  Societies  of 

Delaware,  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia 


THE  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY  OF  DELAWARE 

WILMINGTON 

1911 


Press  of 

The  new  Era  printing  Compani 

Lancaster    Pa 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Hon.  Norris  S.  Barratt Frontispiece 

Barratt's  Chapel   (Chromotype) Facing  page      3 

St.  George's  M.  E.  Church,  Philadelphia "  4 

James  Barratt,  Sr "  6 

James  Barratt,  Jr "  8 

Rev.  John  Wesley "  10 

Rev.  Joseph  Pilmore "  12 

Captain  Thomas  Webb "  14 

Alfred  Barratt "  16 

Philip  Barratt,  autograph 17 

Caleb  Barratt Facing  page    20 

General  George  Washington *'  22 

Hon.  Nathaniel  Barratt  Smithers "  24 

Col.  Allan  McLane "  26 

John   Dickinson "  28 

Governor  David  Hazzard "  30 

Governor  Thomas  McKean "  32 

PeiTy  Hall,  Baltimore "  35 

Governor  Richard  Bassett "  36 

Bishop  Francis  Asbury "  39 

Bishop  Francis  Asbury  (Burial  Slab) "  40 

Judge  Andrew  Barratt's  "  Bible  " "  42 

Dr.  Elijah  Barratt "  43 

Bishop  Thomas  Coke "  47 

Philip  Barratt's  Homestead  (Chromotype) "  49 

Lovely  Lane  Church,  Baltimore,  Md. "  50 

Rev.  Thomas  E.  Martindale,  Salisbury,  Md "  52 

Rev.  F.  J.  Cochran,  Pastor  BaiTatt's  Chapel,  1911  "  54 


ui 


BARRATT'S  CHAPEL  AND  METHODISM 


MONG  the  historic  buildings  of  Del- 
aware Barratt's  Chapel,  known  as 
the  ''Cradle  of  Methodism," 
holds  a  prominent  place,  not 
only  because  it  is  the  spot 
where  Bishops  Thomas  Coke 
and  Francis  Asbury  first  met  in  Amer- 
ica and  arranged  the  preliminaries  for 
forming  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
in  this  country,  but  for  the  additional 
reason  it  was  there  sacramental  ordinances 
were  first  administered  in  America  by  duly 
authorized  Methodist  preachers  to  Methodist  com- 
municants. It  has  a  history  to  be  proud  of  and  Meth- 
odists are  proud  of  it.  To  them  it  has  always  been  a 
sacred  place.  To  those  who  know  its  history  the  re- 
vivals of  religion,  the  prayers  and  blessings,  the  un- 
selfish work  and  labor  of  those  great  preachers  Coke, 
Asbury,  Garrettson,  Pilmore,  Cooper  and  others  who 
as  faithful  ministers  of  Christ  carried  the  message 
of  salvation  to  the  people  of  this  country,  this  chapel 

3 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

cannot  be  entered  without  emotion.  It  is  also  the 
third  oldest  Methodist  church  edifice  in  the  world,  St. 
George's,  Philadelphia,  the  first,  having  been  dedicated 
November,  1769.  I  do  not  intend  to  give  you  an  ex- 
tended account  of  the  origin  of  Methodism,  when  there 
are  so  many  histories  of  it  easily  accessible.  Tyer- 
man,  Stevens,  Lednum,  Bangs,  Daniel,  Wakeley, 
Simpson,  Buckley,  and  a  host  of  others  have  done  such 
full  justice  to  the  subject  that  it  leaves  nothing  to  be 
desired.  It  seems  like  an  affectation  of  ecclesiastical 
learning  to  even  refer  to  them  and  I  merely  do  so  now, 
by  way  of  grateful  acknowledgment  for  my  indebted- 
ness for  many  facts  and  as  a  verification  of  family 
traditions — ''Which  we  have  heard  and  known  and 
our  fathers  have  told  us — That  the  generation  to  come 
might  know  them,  even  the  children  which  should  be 
born;  who  should  arise  and  declare  them  to  their 
children. '  '^ 

As  Delawareans  by  birth  and  ancestry,  it  is  interest- 
ing to  us  particularly,  because  this  great  religious 
work  was  planned  and  commenced  by  our  forefathers. 
Among  my  ancestors  on  the  Delaware-Maryland  Pen- 
insula were: 

Philip  Barratt,  who  was  in  Cecil  Co.,  Maryland,  1678 
William  Merritt,  who  was  in  Cecil  Co.,  Maryland,  1676 
Francis  Neall,  who  was  in  Talbot  Co.,  Maryland,  1661 
James  Wilson,  Sr.,  who  was  in  Talbot  Co.,  Maryland,  1690 
Thomas  Nock,  who  was  in  Talbot  Co.,  Maiyland,  1691. 
Thomas  Eyre,  who  was  in  Northampton  Co.,  Virginia,  1657 
Thomas  Heathered,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1679 
'  P.salms  LXXVIII.,  3  and  6. 

4 


,.;.j     SAINT    GEORGES    ChU,>O.S      ial1 
FOURTH    STREET    BELOW   VINE    STREET,    PHILADELPHIA,    PENNA.,    REV.    JACOB  S.    HUGHES, 
PASTOR.        THE     OLDEST     METHODIST     CHURCH     IN     CONTINUOUS     USE     IN     THE     WORLD. 

SYNOPSIS    OF    ITS    HISTORY    ON     NEXT     PAGE. 


SAINT    GEORGES    METHODIST    EPISCOPAL    CHURCH 

on  the  east  side  of  Fourth  Street  near  Vine  Street,  Philadelphia.  It 
was  erected  in  1763  by  some  members  of  the  German  Reformed 
Congregation  who,  becoming  embarrassed,  they  were  for  a  time 
imprisoned  for  debt,  and  the  Church  was  sold  by  order  of  the  Pro- 
vincial Assembly.  It  was  purchased  by  a  weak-minded  young  man 
for  ^700.  His  father  sold  it  to  one  of  the  Methodists  for  ^650,  Penn- 
sylvania currency,  in  November,  1769.  It  was  immediately  occu- 
pied by  the  Methodist  Society  and  dedicated  by  Rev.  Joseph  Pilmore. 
Captain  Thomas  Webb  preached  the  first  Sabbath  sermon.  In  1777, 
when  the  British  Army  occupied  Philadelphia,  after  the  Battle  of 
Brandywine,  it  was  made  a  riding  school  for  their  cavalry'.  Francis 
Asbury,  on  his  arrival  in  America  in  October,  1771,  preached  his 
first  sermon  here,  as  did  subsequently  Thomas  Rankin  and  Dr. 
Thomas  Coke.  The  first  Methodist  Conference  in  America,  held  in 
1773,  met  in  this  Church,  as  did  the  second  in  1774  and  the  third 
in  1775.  Bishop  Asbury  labored  for  its  completion ;  in  1772  he 
raised  /"ISO  on  its  debt  ;  in  1782  he  took  a  subscription  of  ^270  for 
its  ground  rent,  and  in  1786  he  was  trying  to  raise  /"500  to  pay  the 
entire  debt  incurred  for  its  improvement.  About  1791  the  galleries 
were  finished.  From  it  has  sprung  directly  or  indirectly  all  the 
Methodist  Churches  in  Philadelphia,  and  to-day  it  is  the  oldest 
Methodist  Church  in  continuous  use  in  the  world. 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

John  Cubley,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1683 
John  Curtis,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1679 
Richard  Walker,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1680 
Nathaniel  Hunn,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1689 
John  Clarke,  Sr.,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1679 
Garrett  Sipple,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1698 
William  Brinckle,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1698 
Elizabeth  Green  Manlove,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1652 
Ann  Farrell,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1690 
John  McNatt,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1698. 
Abner  Dill,  who  was  in  Kent  Co.,  now  Delaware,  1752 

They  all  owned  from  one  to  two  thousand  acres  of 
land,  and  most  of  them  were  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land; the  balance  were  Friends  or  Quakers.  Thomas 
Heathered  refused  to  pay  taxes  to  William  Penn  in 
1684.2  Thomas  Eyre  was  the  agent  of  Penn  to  estab- 
lish Quaker  meeting  houses  on  the  peninsula.^  John 
Curtis  was  a  member  of  the  Pennsylvania  Assembly 
from  Kent  County  1682-3,  and  was  a  Provincial  Coun- 
cillor of  Pennsylvania  1689-1690-1691-1697-1698.'^ 
Eichard  Walker  was  granted  the  tract  of  land  upon 
which  Dover,  the  capital  of  Delaware,  was  laid  out  in 
1717  by  three  commissioners,  one  of  whom,  William 
Brinckle,  was  also  an  ancestor.^ 

'  Henry  C.  Conrad's  "  History  of  Delaware,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  64. 

Register  Maryland  Society  Colonial  Wars,  John  Curtis;  Register 
Pennsylvania  Society  Colonial  Wars,  John  Curtis;  Register  Colonial 
Society  of  Pennsylvania,  pp.  32  and  33,  Philip  Barratt;  Register 
Pennsylvania  Society  Sons  of  Revolution,  1906,  p.  37,  Philip  Bar- 
ratt; Register  Society  of  War  of  1812,  p.  34,  1908,  Philip  Barratt. 

'Hilda  Justice's  Warner  Mifflin  (1905),  p.  11;  Virginia  Magazine 
of  History  and  Biography,  Vol.  XIX.,  pp.  10-12. 

*  Henry  C.  Conrad's  "  History  of  Delaware,"  Vol.  I.,  275 ;  Penna. 
Archives,  2d  Series,  Vol.  IX.,  pp.  659-623. 

"  Conrad's  "  Delaware,"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  580  and  633.     For  an  exeel- 

5 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

I  say  our  forefathers  advisedly,  because  most  of  the 
old  Delaware  families,  those  who  have  been  here  two 
hundred  years  and  upwards,  are  related  in  some 
degree  to  each  other,  so  that  it  is  entirely  safe  to 
address  most  of  you  as  cousin.  I  am  myself  descended 
from  Philip  Barratt's  two  sons.  Judge  Andrew  Bar- 
ratt  and  Caleb  Barratt.  My  grandfather,  James 
Barratt,  was  the  son  of  Caleb  Barratt,  and  my 
grandmother,  Ellen  Leighton  Dill,  was  the  only 
daughter  of  Dr.  Eobert  and  Ann  Barratt  Dill.  He 
was  Adjutant  General  of  your  state  during  the 
war  of  1812.  She  was  the  daughter  of  Judge 
Andrew  Barratt,  so  my  grandfather  and  grand- 
mother were  first  cousins  once  removed  to  each 
other.  This  made  me  third  cousin  to  my  father,  James 
Barratt,  Jr.,  third  cousin  once  removed  to  myself  and 
full  fourth  cousin  to  my  own  children, — rather  absurd 
relationships  I  think  you  will  agree  with  me.® 

I  feel  proud  of  the  fact  that  Philip  Barratt,  my 

lent  account  of  this  period  see  "  The  Days  of  Makemie,  1680-1708," 
Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication,  1885. 

•See  "Barratt  Family,"  Henry  C.  Conrad's  "History  of  Dela- 
ware," Vol.  III.,  p.  892.  Judge  Conrad  in  his  valuable  history  men- 
tions nine  families,  viz.:  Rodney,  Read,  Bayard,  McLane,  Mac- 
Donough,  Barratt,  Ridgeley,  Clayton  and  Dupont  in  their  respective 
periods  as  the  influential  families  of  Delaware, 

James  Barratt  upon  his  removal  to  Philadelphia  in  1831  with  his 
uncle  Samuel  Neall  carried  on  the  grain  business  at  Pine  Street 
Wharf,  as  Neall  &  Barratt.  He  helped  organize  the  Corn  Exchange 
and  was  its  president  in  1859.  He  was  a  member  of  Ebenezer  Church, 
Southwark,  prior  to  incorporation;  class  leader,  1833;  trustee,  1835; 
Stewart,  1837.  See  "History  of  Ebenezer  M.  E.  Church"  (1890), 
pp.  103,  104,  157,  158,  160,  173. 

6 


^j^j^jr-foV  ^J^S^<^iS2^ 


1797-1862 

REPRESENTATIVE  SUSSEX  COUNTY  1831.  DIRECTOR,  1831-1832,  FARMERS  BANK  OF 
DELAWARE.  MEMBER  OF  UNION  LODGE,  NO.  7,  F.  AND  A.  M.,  OF  DOVER.  REMOVED 
TO  PHILADELPHIA  IN  1831.  AN  ORIGINATOR  OF  PHILADELPHIA  CORN  EXCHANGE  AND 
PRESIDENT  1859.  MEMBER  OF  FIRM  OF  NEALL  &  BARRATT,  GRAIN  MERCHANTS,  PINE 
STREET  WHARF.  PHILADELPHIA. 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

great-great-great-grandfather,  did  his  part  by  donat- 
ing the  ground  and  aiding  in  the  building  of  the  chapel 
which  has  since  borne  his  name,  and  which  now  re- 
mains as  his  monument.  By  reason  of  it  I  have  been 
asked  to  tell  you  of  Barratt's  chapel  and  early  Meth- 
odism, and  urge  its  preservation  by  endowment.  It 
did  not  need  your  cordial  welcome,  although  I  appre- 
ciate it,  to  convince  me  that  I  am  among  my  own 
kindred.  I  realize  at  once  that  my  name  is  MacGregor 
and  that  my  foot  is  upon  my  native  heath.  I  have 
now  that  feeling  of  home  which  is  so  unusual  to  Amer- 
icans, because  you  rarely  find  eight  generations  who 
inhabit  the  same  house  or  the  same  spot  such  as  you 
would  find  in  the  British  Isles,  France  or  Germany 
where  the  '' homestead"  is  entailed,  except  perhaps  it 
be  in  old  Kent  County,  where  the  home  feeling  and  its 
cherished  memories  which  can  never  be  effaced  have 
always  been  maintained. 

The  unpretentious  and  modest  building  in  which 
American  Methodism  as  a  church  had  its  birth,  al- 
though to  the  rude  forefathers  of  the  hamlet,  and 
among  them  our  own,  it  was  the  grandest  country 
chapel  the  Methodists  had  in  America,  is  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  great  majority  of  the  splendid  gothic 
Methodist  churches  of  today. '^     Contrasted  they  illus- 

^  Captain  John  Smith  in  his  "  Pathway  to  Erect  a  Plantation  " 
tells  us  of  the  first  place  of  divine  worship  in  Virginia.  "  Wee  did 
hang  an  awning  which  is  an  old  saile,  to  three  or  foure  trees  to 
shadow  us  from  the  Sunne;  out  walls  were  rails  of  wood;  our  seats 
unhewed  trees  till  we  cut  plankes;  our  Pulpit  a  bar  of  wood  nailed 

7 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

trate  progress  and  the  wonderful  changes  that  have 
taken  place  in  the  last  one  hundred  and  thirty-one 
years.  It  was  a  greater  undertaking  and  a  matter 
of  more  importance  to  build  a  modest  chapel  in  the 
midst  of  a  forest  in  those  days  than  for  us  to  build  the 
finest  church  edifice.  The  very  plainness  and  colonial 
simplicity  of  Barratt's  ChapeP  where  there  are  no 
''rich  windows  that  exclude  the  light  and  passages 
that  lead  to  nothing"  points  the  moral  that  the  life 
which  it  typifies  and  is  an  inseparable  part  is  that  in 
which  the  best  men  have  been  nurtured,  and  it  helped 
to  produce  and  strengthen  those  rugged  virtues  for 
which  the  early  Methodists  were  noted.  What  Mount 
Sinai  was  to  the  ancient  Jew,  Mecca  to  the  true  Mo- 
hammedan, and  Independence  Hall  to  the  patriotic 
American,  Barratt's  Chapel  is  to  the  Methodist,  the 
cradle  of  his  faith — a  shrine.  That  it  is  a  shrine  like 
one  of  the  holy  places  of  Jerusalem  in  the  affections 
of  pious  Methodists  who  know  the  history  of  their 
church,  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  while  occupying  an 
isolated  position  of  lonely  greatness  in  a  country  dis- 
trict with  a  meagre  church  territory  and  Dover  the 
largest  town  twelve  miles  away,  it  is  still  used  as  a 
place  of  public  worship,  visited  yearly  by  thousands, 
not  forgetting  that  at  its  annual  anniversary  of  Coke's 

to  two  neighboring  trees.  This  was  our  church  till  we  built  a  homely 
thing  like  a  barn  set  upon  cratchets,  covered  with  rafts,  sedge  and 
earth:  so  also  was  the  walls;  the  best  of  our  houses  were  of  like 
curiosity  that  could  neither  well  defend  from  wind  nor  rain. 

'Barratt's  Chapel  and  picture,  Vol.  II.,  Conrad's  "  Historj'  of 
Delaware,"  pp.  664-782. 

8 


1826-1873 

REPRESENTED  SEVENTH  WARD  IN  COMMON  COUNCIL,  PHILADELPHIA,  1862-1865.  JAN- 
UARY 12,  1865,  COMMISSIONER  TO  PAY  BOUNTIES  TO  VOLUNTEERS,  AND  DISTRIBUTED 
OVER  TWELVE  MILLION  DOLLARS.  MAY  25,  1865,  PORT  WARDEN.  1867,  VICE-PRESIDENT 
CORN  EXCHANGE.  MEMBER  COMPANY  D,  FIRST  REGIMENT,  PHCENIX  HOSE  COMPANY, 
LODGE   51,   F.  AND  A.   M.,  AND  UNION   LEAGUE,   PHILADELPHIA. 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

and  Asbury's  meeting,  which  is  always  fittingly  ob- 
served, the  attendance  is  from  1,000  to  1,500,  who 
gladly  come  from  all  over  the  peninsula  as  well  as 
from  distant  cities  to  take  part  in  the  services. 

This  is  commendable  and  as  it  should  be.  Gover- 
nor Pennypacker  of  Pennsylvania  had  this  thought  in 
mind  when  he  said: 

'^Xo  people  are  ever  really  great  who  are  neglectful 
of  their  shrines  and  have  no  pride  in  their  achieve- 
ments. The  history  of  the  world  shows  that  a  correct 
sentiment  is  a  more  lasting  and  potent  force  than 
either  accumulated  money  or  concentrated  authority. 
The  theses  which  Luther  nailed  to  the  church  door  at 
Wittenberg  still  sway  the  minds  of  men," 

I  shall  tell  you  of  the  building  of  Barratt's  Chapel, 
the  causes  that  led  to  it.  and  its  history,  from  which 
you  will  perceive  why  it  is  regarded  with  such  peculiar 
veneration  by  Methodists.^ 

What  Dr.  Stille  said  of  Dickinson  is  equally  appli- 
cable here.  In  undertaking  the  work  which  has  been 
assigned  me  I  have  been  led  to  discuss  many  historical 
questions  which  may  appear  at  first  to  have  little  con- 
nection with  Barratt's  Chapel  and  early  Methodism  or 
Philip  Barratt  but  according  to  the  plan  I  have  adopted 

*  Barratt's  Chapel  and  picture,  "  Encyclopaedia  of  Methodism," 
Bishop  Simpson,  p.  90,  1878 ;  Barratf  s  Chapel  and  picture,  '"  Rise 
of  Methodism."  John  Lednum.  p.  265.  1S59;  Barratt's  Chapel  and 
picture,  "  Lost  Chapters,"  J.  B.  Wakeley.  p.  203,  1S5S ;  Barratt's 
Chapel  and  picture,  "  History  of  Delaware,"  Judge  Conrad,  Yol.  11., 
pp.  664-782,  1906. 

9 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

it  was  essential  to  a  proper  understanding  of  both  that 
some  fair  account  of  Philip  Barratt's  environment 
should  be  given. 

The  first  Methodists  to  come  to  America  were  its 
leaders,  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  who  spent  the  years 
1736-7  in  Savannah  and  Frederica,  Georgia,  where 
they  formed  a  society.  Charles  was  in  Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  preached,  and  John  preached  in  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina,  before  their  return  to  England. 
This  was  the  first  and  only  time  either  was  in  America, 
and  it  cannot  be  said  that  their  work  was  attended  with 
success.  George  Whitefield  came  in  1738  and  preached 
from  Georgia  to  New  England,  and  Mr.  Wesley  says 
of  him,  *'and  all  men  owned  that  God  was  with  him 
wheresoever  he  went,  giving  a  general  call  to  high  and 
low,  rich  and  poor,  to  repent  and  believe  the  Gospel.^^ 
In  1758  he  was  followed  by  Robert  Strawbridge  and 
Philip  Embury,  who  were  in  1760  reinforced  by  Cap- 
tain Thomas  Webb,  Robert  Williams,  Richard  Board- 
man,  Joseph  Pilmore,  from  1804  to  1821  Rector  of  St. 
Paul's  P.  E.  Church,  Philadelphia,  John  King, 
Thomas  Rankin  and  others. 

Professor  Chas.  J.  Little  says  of  them:  ''Williams 
was  an  Irishman — Rankin  was  a  Scotchman,  the  others 
were  English.  They  were  all  young  men,  Pilmore,  the 
oldest,  being  thirty-five,  Asbury,  the  youngest,  twenty- 
six.  Pilmore  educated  at  Kingswood  School;  the 
others.  King  excepted,  had  no  such  training.    Williams 

"  Tracy,  "  Great  Awakening,"  p.  222;  McMaster's  "  History  of  the 
People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  580 ;  MeConneU,  "  The 
English  Church  in  the  Colonies,"  pp.  141-142. 

10 


REV.  JOHN  WESLEY 

BORN,  EPWORTH,  Li  MCOLNSH  I  R  E,   ENG.,  JUNE  17,  1703 
DIED    LONDON,  ENG.,  MARCH  2,  1791 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

was  madly  in  earnest;  King  was  blunt,  simple,  cour- 
ageous; Boardman  was  pious,  good  natured,  sensible, 
greatly  beloved  by  all  who  knew  him.  Pilmore  was 
Yorkshire  built  in  body  and  character,  intrepid,  elo- 
quent, full  of  unction  and  of  power ;  Rankin  austerely 
earnest,  untiring  in  his  devotion  to  his  Master,  but 
without  unusual  gifts  of  mind  or  character.  Williams, 
King  and  Asbury  died  in  America  as  Methodist 
preachers.  Webb,  Boardman,  Wright,  Rankin  and 
Shadford  left  America  when  the  troubles  of  the  Revo- 
lution thickened  about  them  and  never  returned. ^^ 

Captain  Webb  was  the  apostle  of  Methodism  in  Dela- 
ware, as  well  as  of  New  Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  and 
it  is  stated  he  first  preached  in  Wilmington  in  1769, 
which  was  at  that  time  hostile  to  Methodism. 

While  the  early  Methodists  were  derided  for  their 
extreme  strictness  in  dress  and  manners,  yet  we  must 
remember  that  in  the  colonial  times  there  was  more 
formality  and  narrowness  than  prevails  today.  So 
in  that  respect  they  were  more  in  accord  with  their  sur- 
roundings than  one  would  now  suppose  and  it  is  mani- 
festly unfair  to  judge  them  by  the  standards  of  today. 

In  Wilmington  among  those  who  joined  the  society 
were  Isaac  Tussey,  Isaac  Hersey,  Thomas  Webster, 
David  Ford,  Robert  and  Adam  Clark.  While  Meth- 
odism was  introduced  in  New  Castle  as  early  as  1770 
it  was  fifty  years  before  they  built  a  church,  and  in 
Wilmington  progress  was  less  encouraging  than  New 

"  Chas.  J.  Little,  "  Methodist  Pioneers,"  p.  217,  Centennial  Con- 
ference, 1885. 

11 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

Castle.  Asbury  Church  was  built  about  1790.  The 
population  of  Kent  County  in  1780  was  about  ten 
thousand.  The  English  predominated.^^  jn  religion 
it  was  Church  of  England  and  Quaker.  Infidelity  pre- 
vailed both  in  England  and  America,  of  which  Thomas 
Paine  was  an  active  exponent.  ' '  Christianity  was  re- 
duced to  the  lowest  terms,"  says  Mr.  Lecky.  Montes- 
quieu tells  us  ' '  Not  more  than  four  or  five  members  of 
the  House  of  Commons  are  regular  attendants  at 
church, ' '  and  Bishop  Meade  of  Virginia  adds, ' '  Scarcely 
a  young  man  of  culture  could  be  found  who  believed  in 
Christianity."  It  was  not  unusual  at  this  time  when 
a  young  man  of  position  in  England  had  no  prospects 
or  profession  or  was  unsteady  to  put  him  in  the  church 
and  then  for  the  good  of  his  family  he  was  sent  to  one 
of  the  American  Colonies,  or  may  be  he  was  one  of  that 
motley  company  of  damaged  reputations  who  had  re- 
sponded to  the  invitation  to  emigrate,  or  as  Dr.  McCon- 
nell  tells  us  ''took  to  colonial  work  as  a  refuge  from 
poverty  or  scandal. ' '  And  in  America,  far  from  home, 
as  he  regarded  it,  and  its  restraining  influence,  he  often 
did  not  mend  his  ways.  He  was  exiled  to  some  extent 
and  he  felt  he  was  entitled  to  all  the  pleasure  he  could 
obtain.  His  habits  were  charitably  described  as  ' '  easy 
going."  He  attended  horse  races,  gambled,  hunted 
foxes,  often  drank  to  excess  and  generally  led  the  jovial 
life  of  the  English  squire.  This  was  especially  so  in 
Delaware,    Maryland    and   Virginia,    although    there 

"  Scharf  s  History  of  Delaware,  "Methodism  in  Dover,"  Vol.  II., 
1062. 

12 


REV.  JOSEPH    PILMORE 

THE    FIRST    PASTOR   OF   ST.  GEORGE'S    M.    E.    CHURCH,   PHILADELPHIA, 

WHO    PREACHED    AT     'BARRATT'S  CHAPEL   " 

BORN,    ENGLAND,    OCTOBER   31,    i730 

DIED,   PHILADELPHIA,   JULY    24,  1825 

[^From  copy  in  possession  of  Norris  S,  Barratt] 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

were  many  notable  exceptions  among  the  colonial 
clergy  whose  churchmanship,  piety  and  position  were 
undoubted,  and  on  Sunday  he  officiated  and  preached 
at  his  parish  church.  Emerson  was  thinking  of  this 
type  when  he  exclaimed,  "Alas  for  the  unhappy  man 
that  is  called  to  stand  in  the  pulpit  and  not  give  the 
bread  of  life. "  It  is  not  remarkable  that  the  Anglican 
church  declined  and  that  he  lost  the  respect  and  lacked 
influence  with  our  God-fearing  ancestors.  Although 
it  might  also  have  been  said  with  a  degree  of  truth  of 
some  of  the  laity  at  this  period  as  it  had  been  said  ear- 
lier of  Claiborne  of  Kent  Island,  that  "He  could  be 
churchman,  puritan,  caviller  or  roundhead  with  equal 
ease  and  equal  sincerity.  "^  ^  With  such  conditions 
prevailing,  the  time  was  ripe  for  a  religious  revival, 
as  the  Church  of  England  gradually  lost  ground  and 
lost  character.  In  addition  to  this  our  forefathers 
after  the  Revolution  commenced  and  when  we  we;re 
rebels  resented  and  felt  insulted  by  the  reading  of  the 

"  Letter  April  10,  1724,  Giles  Rainsford,  "  Historical  Collections 
American  Colonial  Church,"  Wm.  Stevens  Perry,  Vol.  IV.,  p.  233. 
Also  "Men,  Women  and  Manners  in  Colonial  Times,"  by  Sydney 
Geo.  Fisher,  Vol.  I.,  p.  61;  Bishop  Meade's  "  Old  Churches,"  I.,  162; 
Hawkes,  "Maryland  Contribution,"  63;  Rev.  James  Williamson, 
rector  of  All  Saints,  Calvert  Co.,  Md.,  an  idiot  and  tory;  Rev.  James 
Donaldson,  rector  of  King  and  Queen,  St.  Mai-y's  Co.,  a  good  tory 
and  a  rake ;  Rev.  Daniel  Mainadier,  rector  of  St.  Peter's,  Talbot  Co., 
a  whig  of  the  first  rank  and  reputed  a  good  liver  but  a  horrid 
preacher;  Rev.  Thomas  Phillips,  rector  of  Christ  Church,  Kent  Island, 
tried  for  his  life  in  Virginia  for  shooting  a  man.  Reformed  "  Report 
to  Bishop  of  London,"  1723,  Vol.  IV.,  "Historical  Collection  Ameri- 
can Colonial  Church,"  Wm.  Stevens  Perry,  D.D.,  1878,  pp.  128-129; 
Anderson,  "English  Church  in  the  Colonies,"  Vol.  III.,  p.  149;  Mc- 
Connell's  "  English  Church  in  the  Colonies,"  pp.  101-111,  1894. 

13 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

prayers  and  collects  ordered  by  special  command  of 
his  Majesty  King  George  III.  for  the  express  purpose 
of  invoking  Divine  assistance  in  subduing  his  unhappy 
deluded  subjects  in  America  now  in  open  rebellion 
against  the  crown.  As  Dr.  Tiffany  says:  In  losing 
affection  for  King  men  lost  affection  for  the  Church 
and  the  cry  was :  No  King — no  Bishop.^ ^  The  ' '  prayer 
for  our  enemies"  especially  enraged  them.  As  you 
have  probably  never  heard  it  I  will  read  it — "0 
Blessed  Lord,  who  hast  commanded  us  by  thy  beloved 
Son  to  love  our  enemies ;  and  to  extend  our  charity  in 
praying  even  for  those  who  dispitefully  use  us,  give 
grace  we  beseech  thee,  to  our  unhappy  fellow  subjects 
in  America,  that  seeing  and  confessing  the  error  of 
their  ways,  and  having  a  due  sense  of  their  ingratitude 
for  the  many  blessings  of  thy  Providence,  preserved  to 
them  by  the  indulgent  care  and  protection  of  these 
Kingdoms,  they  may  again  return  to  their  duty  and 
make  themselves  worthy  of  thy  pardon  and  forgive- 
ness :  Grant  us  in  the  meantime  not  only  strength  and 
courage  to  withstand  them,  hut  charity  to  forgive  and 
pity  them,  to  show  a  willingness  to  receive  them  again 
as  friends  and  brethren,  upon  just  and  reasonable 
terms  and  to  treat  them  with  mercy  and  kindness,  for 
the  sake  of  thy  Son  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.  Amen."^^ 
Religious  conditions  were  also  unsatisfactory  with 

"American  Church  Series,  Vol.  VII.,  p.  45,  C.  C.  Tiffany,  New 
York. 

"  Dr.  Julius  P.  Sachse,  "  Form  of  Prayer  for  Fasting  and  Prayer 
Appointed  by  George  III.  in  December,  1776,  on  the  Breaking  Out 
of  the  Revolution,"  p.  13.    Am.  Philo.  Soc,  1898. 

14 


CAPTAIN  THOMAS  WEBB, 

OF  THE  BRITISH  ARMY,  LOST  H:S  RIGHT  EYE  AT  QUEBtC  IN  1759 
WITH  GENERAL  WOLFE.  THE  APOSTLE  OF  METHODISM  IN  DELA- 
WARE, PENNSYLVANIA  AND  NEW  JERSEY.  HE  HELPED  DR.  PILMORE 
TO  PURCHASE  ST.  GEORGE'S.  DIED,  BRISTOL,  ENGLAND,  DEC.  20, 
1796,    AGED  SEVENTY-TWO   YEARS. 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

the  Baptist  Churcli,  but  let  us  hope  they  were  not  as 
bad  as  the  report  of  the  Cowmarsh  Baptist  Church, 
which  was:  "No  minister — no  fixed  salary — nor  many 
rich."i« 

"Never,"  says  the  North  British  Review,  "has  a 
century  risen  in  England  so  void  of  soul  and  faith  as 
that  which  opened  with  Anne  (1702)  and  reached  its 
misty  noon  beneath  the  second  George  (1732-1760),  a 
dewless  night  succeeding  a  dewless  dawn.  The  Puri- 
tans were  buried  and  the  Methodists  were  not  born." 
This  testimony  is  convincing  that  a  condition  then 
existed  which  Methodism  subsequently  met  and  over- 
came, because  whatever  has  been  charged  against  her 
it  has  never  been  said  that  Methodism  had  not  soul  and 
faith.^^    And  in  recognition  of  this  great  work  Eng- 

This  prayer  has  a  familiar  sound.  Perhaps  its  foundation  was 
Chas.  Townshend's  celebrated  speech  in  the  House  of  Commons  to 
which  Col.  Barre  made  his  brilliant  reply:  "They  planted  hy  your 
care!  No;  your  appression  planted  them  in  America.  They  fled 
from  your  tyranny  to  a  then  uncidtivated,  unhabitable  country.  .  .  . 
They  nourished  by  your  indulgence!  They  grew  by  your  neglect  of 
them.  .  .  .  They  protected  by  your  arms!  They  have  nobly  taken 
up  arms  in  your  defence;  have  exerted  a  valor  amid  their  constant 
and  laborious  industry  for  the  defence  of  a  country  whose  frontier 
was  drenched  in  blood,  while  its  interior  departments  yielded  all  its 
little  savings  to  your  emoliunent.  And  believe  me — remember  I  this 
day  told  you  so — the  same  spirit  of  freedom  which  actuated  that 
people  at  first  will  accompany  them  still.  ..."  ("Life  of  Chas. 
Jared  IngersoU,"  by  William  M.  Meigs,  p,  14,  1897.) 

"  Pa.  Mag.  Hist,  and  Biog.,  Vol.  9,  199. 

""The  Century's  Religious  Progress,"  by  George  Edward  Reed, 
S.T.D.,  LL.D.,  p.  147. 

Bishop  White  was  mistaken,  when  February  7,  1794,  he  reported 
to  the  Bishop  of  London  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  those 
who  during  the  destitute  condition  of  our  Churches  in  and  after  the 

15 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

land  in  1876  placed  memorials  of  John  Wesley  and 
Charles  Wesley  in  the  south  aisle  of  her  Temple  of 
Fame,  Westminster  Abbey  in  London.  In  accepting 
them  Dean  Stanley  of  Westminster  said:  ''They 
preached  those  great  effects  which  have  never  since 
died  out  in  English  Christendom."  He  also  said  at 
another  time:  ''The  Methodist  movement  in  both  its 
branches,  Arminian  and  calvinistic,  has  moulded  the 
spiritual  character  of  the  English-speaking  Protest- 
antism of  the  world." 

Emerson  says  that  nothing  great  was  ever  achieved 
without  enthusiasm,  and  we  know  now  it  was  the  soul, 
faith,  energy  and  untiring  self-devotion  of  the  early 
American  itinerants  of  which  Asbury,  Garrettson, 
Webb,  Pilmore,  Abbott,  Watters,  and  Cooper  were  the 
type  which  built  the  foundations  upon  which  the  church 
rests  so  securely  today. 

Barratt's  Chapel  is  situated  near  Frederica,  South 
Murderkill  Hundred,  Kent  County,  State  of  Delaware. 
It  can  be  reached  either  by  way  of  Dover  or  Felton  on 
the  Pennsylvania  Railroad.  South  Murderkill  Hun- 
dred as  late  as  1780  was  a  dense  primeval  forest  of 
gigantic  oaks  and  pines  except  the  marshes  and 
cripples  near  the  Murderkill  Creek  and  here  and  there 
where  the  indefatigable  pioneer  had  cleared  one  hun- 
dred to  one  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  his  land  for 
farming  purposes.  It  was  built  in  May,  1780,  upon 
grounds  donated  for  that  purpose  by  Philip  Barratt, 

war  joined  the  Methodists  are  returning,  as  those  who  did  return  were 
inconsiderable.     Wilson,  "  Life  of  Bishop  White,"  p.  167,  1839. 

16 


^y^/^.{XJ^C^^~^ 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

a  member  of  the  General  Assembly,  lately  High  Sheriff 
of  Kent  County,  through  whose  exertions,  aided  partic- 
ularly by  his  father-in-law,  Waitman  Sipple,  the  pro- 
ject was  accomplished. 


t%*^^2^^.     ^O/ 


The  deed  bears  date  August  17,  1780,  and  is  from 
Philip  Barratt  to  Eeynear  Williams,  David  Lewis, 
Waitman  Sipple,  Samuel  Smith,  Caleb  Furbee,  Jona- 
than Furbee,  Andrew  Purden,  William  Virden,  and 
Daniel  James,  trustees  for  part  of  a  tract  of  land 
called  ''William's  Chance,"  beginning  from  corner  of 
brick  building  now  carrying  on,  and  intended  for  a 
preaching  house  or  chapel.^ ^  It  provides  that  those 
entitled  to  preach  shall  be  persons  appointed  at  the 
yearly  conference  of  the  people  called  Methodists, 
held  in  America  to  preach  and  expound  God's  word, 
and  no  other  doctrine  shall  be  taught  than  is  contained 
in  the  Rev.  John  Wesley's  notes  on  the  New  Testament 
and  four  volumes  of  sermons,  etc. 

The  building  is  almost  square  in  appearance,  being 
42  by  48  feet,  two  stories  high  with  a  gallery  inside 

"  Recorded  at  Dover,  Deed  Book  W,  Vol.  1,  p.  247- 

17 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

and  is  built  of  brick  said  to  have  been  imported  for 
that  purpose  from  Holland.  This  I  doubt  very  much, 
as  good  brick  clay  could  be  obtained  nearby.  The  high 
pulpit  which  very  nearly  concealed  the  preacher  from 
the  view  of  the  congreation  unfortunately  has  been  re- 
moved, and  it  should  be  restored  although  the  same 
seat  upon  which  Bishops  Asbury  and  Coke  and  the 
early  fathers  of  the  church  sat  is  yet  preserved,  other- 
wise the  chapel  presents  very  much  the  same  appear- 
ance today  as  it  did  when  finished.  Previous  to  the 
erection  of  the  chapel  it  was  customary  for  the  people 
to  meet  at  the  drawbridge  or  go  to  each  others '  houses 
which  were  miles  apart,  as  agreed  upon  beforehand, 
for  the  purpose  of  having  prayers  or  listening  to  the 
exhortations  of  some  itinerant.  In  October,  1778, 
Freeborn  Garrettson  preached  with  his  usual  virility 
in  Murderkill  at  the  house  of  David  Lewis,  and  among 
those  converted  or  awakened  to  self -consciousness 
were  Philip  Barratt,  Sheriff  of  Kent  County,  and 
his  brother-in-law,  Jonathan  Sipple,  Coroner  of  Kent, 
whose  house  became  a  preaching  place  as  well  as 
Philip  Barratt's.  After  his  death  in  1780  his  father, 
Waitman  Sipple,  Jr.,  took  his  place.  This  often  re- 
sulted in  from  two  to  three  hundred  people  being 
present,  which  was  more  than  could  be  comfortably 
accommodated,  especially  on  Sundays  or  during  re- 
vivals. The  inconvenience  was  particularly  felt  dur- 
ing the  winter  season.  A  regular  place  of  meeting 
was  sadly  needed,  and  it  was  to  supply  this  want  and 
to  have  a  fixed  place  of  public  worship  where  regular 

18 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

services  could  be  held  that  determined  Philip  Barratt 
to  erect  this  chapel.^ ^  We  can  think  of  Philip  Barratt, 
Asbury  and  all  the  original  trustees  of  this  chapel  con- 
sulting together  about  its  erection  in  the  living-room 
of  the  Barratt  farmhouse,  and  while  they  may  not 
have  used  the  exact  words  the  thought  was  there  which 
Euskin  in  ''The  Lamp  of  Memory"  so  beautifully  ex- 
presses when  he  says  ''When  we  build,  let  us  think  we 
build  forever — let  it  not  be  for  present  delight  nor  for 
present  use  alone — let  it  be  such  work  as  our  descen- 
dants will  thank  us  for  and  let  us  think  as  we  lay  stone 
on  stone,  that  a  time  is  to  come  when  these  stones  will 
be  held  sacred  because  our  hands  have  touched  them 
and  that  men  will  say  as  they  look  upon  the  labor  and 
wrought  substances  of  them  'See  this  our  fathers  did 
for  us.'  "  Mr.  Asbury  arranged  the  rules  of  the 
chapel  when  it  was  opened,  appointed  stewards  and 
made  arrangements  for  the  preachers  to  meet  and 
instruct  the  children. 

Philip  Barratt  was  the  youngest  son  of  Philip  Bar- 
ratt, planter,  of  Bohemia  Manor,  Cecil  County,  Mary- 
land. His  father  is  supposed  to  have  been  the  emi- 
grant. He  settled  upon  the  Sassafras  River  prior  to 
1678  and  his  last  wife  was  Jane  Merritt,  daughter  of 
Thomas  Merritt.  By  her  he  had  four  children,  An- 
drew Barratt,  Catherine  Barratt,  Eoger  Barratt  and 

"  See  Rfev.  Robt.  W.  Todd's  "  Methodism  on  the  Peninsula,"  1886, 
pp.  49,  307,  281,  286;  George  Alfred  Townsend's  "Poems,"  Dover, 
p.  227,  1899.  Bishop  Asbury's  personal  Bible,  the  one  he  used  at 
this  time  is  now  preserved  in  the  United  States  National  Museum, 
at  Washington,  D.  C. 

19 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

Philip  Barratt.  Philip  Barratt's  birth  is  recorded 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Richard  Sewell,  of  the  Church  of  England, 
the  Rector  in  St.  Stephen's  Parish  Church,  Cecil 
County,  Maryland,  as  October  12,  1730.  Philip  Bar- 
ratt, Sr.,  died  in  August,  1733,  his  widow,  Jane  M., 
married  Joseph  Price,  a  farmer  of  Kent  County,  Dela- 
ware, where  she  subsequently  resided  upon  the  tract  of 
land  upon  which  Barratt's  Chapel  was  afterwards 
erected.  Upon  her  marriage  she  brought  her  two 
minor  sons  Roger  and  Philip  with  her,  and  it  was  in 
this  manner  our  Philip  Barratt  became  a  Dela- 
warean.-^  Roger  Barratt  married  Miriam  Robinson 
and  numbers  among  his  descendants  the  late  Barratt  P. 
Conner,  James  Barratt  Conner  and  Alvin  Barratt  Con- 
ner of  Felton,  your  present  efficient  State  Senator 
from  Kent  County,  and  Rev.  Dr.  Horace  Edwin  Hay- 
den  of  Wilkesbarre,  Pennsylvania,  the  well-known 
historian  and  author.  In  1755  Philip  Barratt  married 
Miriam  Sipple,  daughter  of  Waitman  Sipple.  Philip 
Barratt    was    commissioned    High    Sheriff    of    Kent 

"Will  John  English,  January  8,  1678,  Liber  2,  Cecil  Co.  Wills, 
folio  89,  Philip  Barratt ;  Land  Commissioners  Office,  Annapolis,  Liber 
D.S.F.  35,  p.  308,  Philip  Barratt;  Rent  Roll,  Vol.  2,  Kent  Cecil,  No. 
2,  p.  296,  Annapolis,  Md.,  Philip  Barratt;  St.  Stephen's  Parish 
Records,  Md.  Hist.  Society,  Philip  Ban-att ;  Will  of  Philip  Barratt, 
Liber  CO.,  No.  3,  p.  847,  Land  Office,  Annapolis,  Md. ;  Deed  Joseph 
Price  et  ux.  to  Andrew  Barratt,  2  Nov.,  1752,  Cecil  Co.  Deed  Book, 
7,  p.  508 ;  Will  Andrew  Ban-att,  10  Sept.,  1790,  WiU  Book  5,  Cecil 
Co.,  p.  248;  Deed  Andrew  Barratt  to  Catherine  Barratt  for  two 
slaves,  George  and  Grace,  also  two  slaves  to  his  granddaughters 
Mary  and  Carrie  Williams,  deed  dated  August  28,  1790,  Cecil  Co. 
Records,  p.  53;  Scharf's  "History  of  Delaware,"  Vol.  IL,  note,  p. 
483,  and  pp.  582,  1040,  1141, 1157-410,  1145,  1039,  1126,  1151,  1169. 

20 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism, 

County,  October  6,  1775,  and  served  until  September, 
1779,  when  lie  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Assembly 
from  Kent  County.^^ 

The  Assembly  met  in  Wilmington,  October  30,  1779, 

'^  In  the  campaign  of  1775,  when  Philip  Barratt  was  elected  Sheriff 
of  Kent,  Caesar  Rodney,  who  signed  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence, wrote  to  his  brother,  Thomas  Rodney,  from  Philadelphia, 
September  26,  1775 :  "  One  circumstance,  relative  to  your  politics 
gives  me  infinite  concern — it  is  this  (as  related  to  me)  that  you 
intend  to  leave  Mr.  Barratt  out  of  your  ticket  as  Sheriff.  ,  .  .  Mr. 
Barratt  has  much  at  stake  and  I  believe  an  honest  man  therefore 
hope  you  and  your  friends  will  carry  him  steadily."  Caesar  Rodney 
felt  that  Philip  Barratt's  absence  from  the  ticket  imperiled  his  poli- 
tical future  when  he  significantly  added :  "  and  perhaps  events 
brought  about  in  consequence  of  it  that  neither  you  or  I  would  wish." 
Original  letter  New  York  Public  Library,  Astor  and  Tilden  Annex. 

The  fear  expressed  by  Caesar  Rodney  in  September,  1775,  in  this 
letter,  was  realized  one  year  later  when  his  brother,  Thomas  Rodney, 
and  his  friends  were  defeated  as  delegates  to  the  convention  to  be 
held  at  New  Castle,  August  27,  1776,  and  which  formed  the  Delaware 
Constitution  of  1776.  The  reason  for  this  defeat  is  told  by  Caesar 
Rodney  in  a  letter  of  August  21,  1776  (Scharf,  "History  of  Dela- 
ware," p.  233)  :  "Last  night  by  the  post  I  received  an  account  of 
your  defeat  at  the  election  and  in  which  I  was  not  disappointed, 
being  convinced  you  continued  to  be  too  sanguine  in  your  expecta- 
tions without  taking  the  necessary  steps  to  carry  a  point  of  that  sort ; 
added  to  all  the  rest  of  your  bad  policy,  you  suffered  Caldwell's  Com- 
pany to  march  away  just  before  the  election  when  there  was  no 
necessity  for  it,  as  the  other  companies  were  not  half  full  in  any  of 
the  counties.  Parke  tells  me  the  conduct  of  your  light  infantry  here- 
tofore had  drawn  down  the  resentment  of  the  people  which  put  it  in 
the  power  of  that  party  who  were  opposed  to  you  to  make  this  use 
of  it." 

The  views  expressed  in  this  letter  by  Caesar  Rodney  are  sound;  it 
shows  him  to  have  been  a  judge  of  men  and  a  keener  politician  than 
his  brother  Thomas.  It  is  peculiarly  interesting  in  connection  with 
his  first  letter  of  1775,  when  he  insisted  Philip  BaiTatt  should  be 
supported  by  Thomas  Rodney  for  sheriff  and  put  upon  his  ticket, 
and  in  view  of  the  further  fact  that  Philip  Barratt  himself  was  again 
elected  sheriff  at  this  election. 

21 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

and  while  the  minutes  from  1776  to  1782  are  not  in  ex- 
istence Philip  Barratt  seems  to  have  taken  such  a 
prominent  part  that  many  of  his  legislative  services 
are  foimd  in  the  minutes  of  the  Council,  as  the  Senate 
was  then  called,  more  especially  when  its  concurrence 
was  necessary.  Briefly  they  show — December  8,  1779, 
Nicholas  Van  Dyke  and  Philip  Barratt  a  Committee  to 
settle  and  adjust  accounts  of  State  Treasurer ;  Decem- 
ber 20, 1779,  Philip  Barratt  and  John  Cook,  Committee 
General  Loan  Office ;  December  22, 1779,  Philip  Barratt 
voted  for  John  Dickinson,  Nicholas  Van  Dyke  and 
George  Eead,  who  were  elected  delegates  to  the  Con- 
gress of  the  United  States. 

December  23,  1779,  Philip  Barratt  was  appointed  by 
the  Assembly  to  pay  the  militia  of  Kent  County  £3,600, 
he  to  be  accoimtable  for  the  expenditure  thereof  and 
to  render  an  account  of  his  proceedings  in  the  premises 
to  the  General  Assembly  at  the  next  meeting.  The 
records  of  the  Adjutant  General's  Office,  War  Depart- 
ment, Washington,  D.  C,  show  Philip  Barratt  served 
as  a  member  of  a  Committee  of  public  accounts  ap- 
pointed by  the  General  Assembly  in  1782.  February 
4,  1782,  he  presented  to  the  Council  certain  letters  and 
certificates  of  General  Washington  and  secured  the 
necessary  legislation.  He  took  a  prominent  part  in 
the  assembly  until  1783,  doing  his  utmost  to  aid  the 
patriotic  cause.^^    He  was  the  owner  of  a  large  landed 

°^  Minutes  of  Council  Delaware  State,  1779-1792,  pp.  178,  179, 
461,  472,  488,  489,  495,  496,  631,  643,  658,  711,  712,  762,  783,  807, 

22 


%^': 


i 


ADDRESS  OF  THE  BISHOPS  OF  THE  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH. 
"To  THE  President  of  the  United  States  : 

>^  Sir.— We,  the  bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  humbly  beg  leave,  in  the  name( 
our  society,  collectively,  in  these  United  States,  to  express  to  you  the  warm  feelings  of  our  hearts, 
and  our  sincere  congratulations  on  your  appointment  to  the  presidentship  of  these  States.  We 
are  conscious,  from  the  signal  proofs  you  have  already  given,  that  you  are  a  friend  of  mankind  ; 
and  under  this  established  idea,  place  as  full  confidence  in  your  wisdom  and  integrity  for  the 
preservation  of  those  civil  and  religious  liberties  which  have  been  transmitted  to  us  by  the 
providence  of  God  and  the  glorious  Revolution,  as  we  believe  ought  to  be  reposed  in  man. 

"  We  have  received  the  most  grateful  satisfaction  from  the  humble  and  entire  dependence 
on  the  great  Governor  of  the  universe  which  you  have  repeatedly  expressed,  acknowledging 
Him  the  source  of  every  blessing,  and  particularly  of  the  most  excellent  Constitution  of  these 
States,  which  is  at  present  the  admiration  of  the  world,  and  may  in  future  become  its  great 
exampler  for  imitation  ;  and  hence  we  enjoy  a  holy  expectation,  that  you  will  always  prove  a 
faithful  and  impartial  patron  of  genuine,  vital  religion,  the  grand  end  of  our  creation  and 
present  probationary  existence.  And  we  promise  you  our  fervent  prayers  to  the  throne  of  grace, 
that  God  Almighly  may  endue  you  with  all  the  graces  and  gifts  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  that  he  may 
enable  you  to  fill  up  your  important  station  to  His  glory,  the  good  of  His  Church,  the  happiness 
and  prosperity  of  the  United  States,  and  the  welfare  of  mankind. 

"  Signed  in  behalf  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. 

"  Thomas  Coke, 

"New  York,  May  29,  1789."  "Francis  Asbury.  i 

The  following  is  the  reply  of  President  Washington  : 

"To  thr  Bishops  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the 
United  States  of  America. 

"  Gentlemen. — I  return  to  you  individually,  and  through  you  to  your  society  collectively  in 
the  United  States,  my  thanks  for  the  demonstrations  of  affection,  and  the  expressions  of  jo) 
offered  in  their  behalf,  on  my  late  appointment.  It  shall  be  my  endeavor  to  manifest  the  purit} 
of  my  inclinations  for  promoting  the  happiness  of  mankind,  as  well  as  the  sincerity  of  m) 
desires  to  contribute  whatever  may  be  in  my  power  toward  the  civil  and  religious  liberties  ol 
the  American  people.  In  pursuing  this  line  of  conduct,  I  hope,  by  the  assistance  of  divint 
Providence,  not  altogether  to  disappoint  the  confidence  which  you  have  been  pleased  to  repos( 
in  me. 

"It  always  affords  me  satisfaction  when  I  find  a  concurrence  of  sentiment  and  practici 
between  all  conscientious  men,  in  acknowledgments  of  homage  to  the  great  Governor  of  th( 
universe,  and  in  professions  of  support  to  a  just  civil  government.  After  mentioning  that 
trust  the  people  of  every  denomination,  who  demean  themselves  as  good  citizens,  will  hav 
occasion  to  be  convinced  that  I  shall  always  strive  to  prove  a  faithful  and  impartial  patron  o  \ 
genuine  vital  religion.  I  must  assure  you  in  particular,  that  I  take  in  the  kindest  part  th 
promise  you  make  of  presenting  your  prayers  at  the  throne  of  grace  for  me,  and  that  I  likewis 
implore  the  divine  benediction  on  yourselves  and  your  religious  community. 

"George  Washington." 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism, 

estate  of  800  acres  surrounding  the  chapel,  which 
upon  his  death  he  devised  to  his  children,  Judge 
Andrew  Barratt,  Caleb  Barratt,  Dr.  Elijah  Barratt, 
Nathaniel  Barratt,  Philip  Barratt,  3rd,  Miriam  Bar- 
ratt and  Lydia  Barratt,  and  all  historians  agree  that 
he  was  a  most  earnest  supporter  of  Bishop  Asbury 
and  was  one  of  the  friends  like  Dr.  Edward  White  of 
Dover,  Eeynear  Williams  of  Milford,  Judge  Thomas 
White,  Harry  Dorsey  Gough  and  Eichard  Bassett,  who 
opened  their  houses  for  this  purpose  and  aided  and 
protected  him  and  other  suffering  itinerants  in  the 
troubled  times  of  the  Eevolution.  He  also  owned  two 
sloops,  the  "Friendship"  of  twenty  tons,  and  the 
''Dolphin"  of  fifteen  tons,  in  which  he  shipped  pork, 
beef,  corn,  bark  and  staves  to  Philadelphia  via  the 
Murderkill  Creek  which  ran  through  his  plantation  and 
which  was  navigable  to  what  is  now  the  town  of  Fred- 
erica  for  sloops,  shallops  or  light  draught  schooners. 

Bishop  Asbury  made  the  following  note  in  his  journal 
under  date  of  Monday,  March  20,  1780:  "Eose  early, 
wrote  an  hour,  then  rode  twenty-four  miles  to  Caleb 
Furbee's  to  preach;  was  late  but  came  before  Caleb 
Boyer  was  done  meeting  the  class.  Spoke  on  John 
III.  24,  and  felt  quickenings.  Went  home  with  Wait- 
man  Sipple;  he  and  Philip  Barratt  determined  to  go 
about  the  chapel  and  to  set  it  near  the  drawbridge." 

Asbury  in  his  journal  has  the  following  entries: 

808,  812.  Also  see  Henry  C.  Conrad's  "  History  of  Delaware,"  Vol. 
III.,  p.  892 ;  Vol.  10,  "  Colonial  Records,"  p.  270 ;  Penna.  Archives, 
2d  Series,  Vol.  9,  p.  672. 

23 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

''Saturday,  May  8,  1779,  yesterday  being  a  public 
fast  day,  we  had  a  large  congregation  and  a  solemn 
time  while  I  preached  on  the  fast  of  the  Ninevites.  I 
found  about  forty  in  society  at  the  Drawbridge. 

''June  16,  1779,  preached  at  Barratt's. 

"August  8,  1779,  rode  to  the  Drawbridge,  preached 
to  300  there. 

"August  22,  1779,  rode  to  the  Drawbridge,  preached 
to  300  there. 

"September  5,  1779,  at  Williams,  then  rode  to  the 
Drawbridge,  preached  to  300  there. 

"October  3,  1779,  rode  to  the  Drawbridge,  preached 
to  200  there. 

Johnnycake  bridge  here  mentioned  was  higher  up 
than  the  present  crossing  into  Frederica,  which  was 
built  at  a  later  date  across  a  marsh  and  cripple  and  was 
at  a  place  called  Johnnycake  crossing  on  the  same 
stream  which  had  fast  land  on  both  banks  and  was  on 
the  north  side  of  land  lately  owned  by  Mrs.  Mary 
Darby.2^    Philip  Barratt  married  Miriam  Sipple,  and 

"Scharf  in  his  "History  of  Delaware,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  1169,  states: 
"  The  family  names  of  early  settlers  in  Murderkill  Neck  and  espe- 
cially of  those  who  afterwards  rose  to  a  controlling  influence  in  the 
affairs  of  the  neighborhood  and  who  having  died,  are  now  remem- 
bered only  by  what  they  have  done  may  be  mentioned  in  the  f  oUoiving 
order :  "Wan-en,  Barratt,  Nowell,  Sipple,  Gray,  Chambers,  Van  Natti, 
Neill,  "Walton,  Darnell,  Cramer,  Montague,  Boone,  Loekwood,  Ed- 
munds, Hewston,  Fisher,  Cole,  Lindale,  Smith,  Anderson,  Smithers, 
"Wilson,  George,  Manlove,  Bowers,  Reed,  Grier,  Clark,  Harper, 
Melvin,  Burchenal,  Hirons,  Vickery,  "Williams,  "West,  Baker  and 
Emory — 

'  Lamented  dead  and  names  of  men, 
Who  built  the  school  house,  drained  the  fen.' 
24 


NATHANIEL    BARRATT    SMITHERS,    LL.D. 

BORN  OCTOBER  8,  1818;  DIED  JANUARY  16,  1896;  SON  OF  NATHANIEL  SMITHERS  AND 
SUSAN  FISHER  BARRATT.  HIS  MOTHER  WAS  THE  DAUGHTER  OF  DR.  ELIJAH  BARRATT, 
SON  OF  PHILIP  BARRATT.  ADMITTED  TO  KENT  BAR  IN  1841,  AND  WAS  FOR  MANY  YEARS 
THE  FOREMOST  LAWYER  IN  THE  STATE.  IN  REPUBLICAN  NATIONAL  CONVENTIONS  1860, 
1868,  1880.  SECRETARY  OF  STATE  IN  1862  AND  AGAIN  IN  1895.  MEMBER  OF  CONGRESS 
IN   1863  AND  A  FRIEND  AND  SUPPORTER  OF  PRESIDENT  LINCOLN. 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

Caleb  Furbee  married  Anna  Sipple.  They  were 
daughters  of  Waitman  and  Mary  Hunn  Sipple,  and 
Mary  Hunn  Sipple  was  the  daughter  of  Jonathan 
Hunn.  So  we  have  here  a  father  and  his  two  Sons- 
in-law.  In  November,  1780,  the  first  quarterly  meet- 
ing was  held  in  the  chapel  and  it  is  recorded  one 
thousand  people  were  in  attendance.  Dr.  Samuel 
Magaw,  "a  kind,  sensible,  friendly  minister  of  the 
Episcopal  church,"  rector  of  the  Episcopal  church 
in  Dover,  afterwards  rector  of  St.  Paul's  P.  E. 
Church  of  Philadelphia,  preached  Saturday  afternoon 
*'an  excellent  sermon, "^^  says  Asbury,  on  "Who 
shall  ascend  into  the  hill  of  the  Lord";  Brothers 
Hartley  and  Glendenning  exhorted.  We  all  stayed 
at  Mr.  Barratt's.  Mr.  Magaw  prayed  with  much 
affection,  and  we  parted  with  great  love.  The 
next  day,  he  continues,  Sunday,  November  5,  we  had 
between  one  and  two  thousand  people.  Our  house 
was  crowded  above  and  below  and  numbers  remained 
outside.  Our  love  feast  lasted  about  two  hours. 
Some  spoke  about  the  sanctifying  grace  of  God.  I 
preached  on  John  3 :  16-18,  a  heavy  house  to  preach  in. 

The  latest  dates  found  on  any  headstones  of  the  Van  Nattis  or 
Nowells  are  1787.  The  private  burial  ground  of  the  "Warrens  is  the 
oldest  but  that  of  the  Barratt's  best  denotes  wealth  and  refinement. 
These  inhabitants  had  social  culture  and  repute  before  Frederica  was 
a  town  and  most  of  them  were  related." 

"  Dr.  Magaw  was  the  last  minister  sent  to  America  in  1767  by  the 
Venerable  Society  for  the  propagation  of  the  Gospel.  He  minis- 
tered from  1767  to  1780.  Scharf's  "History  of  Delaware,"  Vol.  II., 
pp.  1055  and  1101.  Afterwards  rector  St.  Paul's  P.  E.  Church, 
Philadelphia,  1781. 

25 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

Brothers  (Caleb  B.)  Peddicord  and  (Joseph)  Crom- 
well exhorted. 

This  may  be  regarded  as  the  dedication  of  the  chapel 
though  services  had  been  held  in  it  earlier  in  the  year. 
Three  days  after  this  quarterly  meeting,  Wednesday, 
November  8,  1780,  we  find  this  record  in  Mr.  Asbury's 
journal:  Engaged  the  friends  to  subscribe  seven  hun- 
dredweight of  pork  toward  the  meeting  house  at  Bar- 
ratt's, showing  the  people  contributed  in  merchandise 
as  well  as  in  money  and  labor.  The  first  time  Mr. 
Asbury  refers  to  this  new  edifice  by  its  name  is  under 
date  of  September  28,  1783,  when  he  records  preaching 
Sunday  afternoon  '  *  at  Barratt  's  Chapel. ' ' 

In  early  times  the  colonists  agreed  ''There  is  no 
room  in  Christ's  triumphant  army  for  tolerationists," 
the  only  notable  exception  being  Lord  Baltimore,  who 
had  a  law  in  favor  of  religious  freedom  passed  in 
Maryland  as  early  as  1649.2^  So  that  as  Mr.  Justice 
Wilson  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
remarks,  before  the  doctrine  of  toleration  was  pub- 
lished in  Europe  the  practice  of  it  was  established  in 
America.26  Dr.  Charles  J.  Stille  in  his  learned  article 
on  ''Eeligious  Tests  in  Provincial  Pennsylvania" 
(Vol.  IX  Pennsylvania  Magazine  of  History,  page  374) 
so  completely  sustains  this  that  I  cannot  refrain 
from  quoting  him.    I  do  this  with  less  diffidence  as 

"  Rev.  Ethan  Allen,  "  Who  were  the  Early  Settlers  of  Maryland?" 
BaltuBore.     McMahon's  "  History  of  Maryland." 

""The  Works  of  James  Wilson,"  James  D.  Andrews,  Vol.  I., 
p.  4,  Callaghan  &  Co.,  Chicago. 

26 


ALLAN     MCLANE. 
BORN  AUGUST  8,   1746;    DIED  MAY  22,  1829. 


A  FRIEND  OF  PHILIP  BARRATT  AND  FRANCIS  ASBURV. 
AT  DUCK  CREEK  CROSS  ROADS  NOW  SMYRNA,   DELAWARE. 


in  178f.  he  gave  the  ground  for  asburv  church 
(see  over) 


ALLAN  McLANP:. 

It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  early  Methodists  like  Philip  Barratt,  his 
son  Dr.  Elijah  Barratt,  Hon.  Richard  Bassett,  Judge  Thomas  White, 
Col.  Allan  McLane  and  Harry  Dorsey  Gough  of  Perry  Hall,  who  were 
personal  friends,  through  Asbury's  influence  either  gave  ground  or 
erected  chapels. 

Allan  McLane,  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  August  8,  1746,  and  re- 
moved to  Kent  County,  Delaware,  1774.  In  1775  was  appointed  Lieu- 
tenant in  Colonel  Caesar  Rodney's  Regiment  of  Delaware  Militia,  and 
in  1776  joined  Washington's  army  and  was  distinguished  in  actions  at 
Long  Island,  at  White  Plains,  Trenton  and  Princeton.  Commissioned 
Captain  and  assigned  to  Colonel  John  Patton's  Additional  Continental 
Regiment,  January  13,  1777.  His  partisan  company  was  in  service  on 
outposts  of  Philadelphia,  Pa.,  during  its  occupancy  by  enemy,  1777- 
1778;  attached  to  Delaware  Regiment,  Continental  Establishment, 
December  16,  1778,  and  to  MajorLee's  Partisan  Corps,  July  13,  1779; 
February  4,  1782,  as  a  member  of  Assembly  from  Kent  County  Philip 
Barratt  offered  a  resolution  at  request  of  Allan  McLane  empowering 
State  Treasurer  to  purchase  a  sum  of  money  in  specie  for  benefit  of 
officers  of  Delaware  regiment  who  were  made  prisoners  ou  Long  Island  ; 
present  at  siege  of,  and  surrender  at,  Yorktown,  and  retired  from  ser- 
vice November  9,  1782.  Member  of  Lodge  No.  2,  F.  and  M.  of  Phila- 
delphia, 1779. 

He  and  his  wife  were  Methodists  and  his  children,  including  Hon. 
Louis  McLane  who  was  a  member  of  Gen'l  Jackson's  Cabinet  and 
Minister  to  England,  and  father  of  Hon.  Robert  M.  McLane  Governor 
of  Maryland  (1884),  were  baptised  by  Bishop  Asbury. 

/;/  /lis  Journal  Asbury  states  : 

1797  July  12,  I  rode  to  Wilmington  and  stopped  at  Allen  McLane's, 
now  living  there. 

1801  July  31,  I  stopped  with  Allen  McLane  at  Wilmington. 

1802  April  28,  I  lodged  for  the  night  with  Allen  McLane — my  fever 
rose. 

1802  Aug.  2,  I  proceeded  on  to  Wilmington  in  the  rain  and  lodged 
with  Allen  McLane. 

1804  ^lay  13,  I  dined  with  Allen  McLane — rode  45  miles  to-day. 

1814  April  3,  I  baptised  the  children  of  Allen  and  Louis  McLane 
these  people  have  not  forgotten  the  holy  living  and  dying  of  their 
mother,  nor  her  early  and  constant  friend,  the  writer  of  this  Journal. 

The  friendship  between  the  McLanes  and  the  Barratts  did  not  sur- 
vive the  third  generation.  See  account  of  duel,  1807,  between  John 
Barratt  and  Louis  McLane,  who  were  then  studying  law  with  Hon. 
James  A.  Bavard,  mentioned  bv  Judge  Conrad  in  his  "  Historv  of 
Delaware."     Vol.  Ill,  p.  895. 

After  the  war  he  settled  at  Smyrna,  Delaware.  He  was  a  member 
of  the  State  Convention  that  ratified  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  in  1787,  was  a  member  and  Speaker  of  the  Delaware  Legisla- 
ture, for  si.x  years  was  a  privy  councillor,  for  many  years  Judge  of  the 
Court  of  Common  Pleas  and  United  States  Marshal  of  the  Delaware 
District  from  1790  to  1798.  Also  collector  of  the  Port  of  Wilmington 
from  1808  to  date  of  his  death,  which  occurred  May  22,  1829.  Buried 
in  Asbury  Church  cemetery,  Wilmington,  Delaware.  See  "Barratt 
and  Sachse  Freemasonry  in  Pennsylvania,  1727-1907."  Vol.  II,  p.  109. 
Conrads  "  History."     Vol.  Ill,  p.  877. 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

De  Quincy  tells  us  ''people  read  nothing  in  these  days 
that  is  more  than  forty-eight  hours  old,  so  I  am  daily 
admonished  that  allusions,  the  most  obvious  to  any- 
thing in  the  rear  of  our  own  time  need  explanation." 
Hear  what  he  says  about  this  intolerance. 

''In  New  Jersey,  after  the  surrender  of  the  Charter, 
when  the  Colony  came  directly  under  the  royal  author- 
ity, in  1702,  liberty  of  conscience  was  proclaimed  in 
favor  of  all  except  Papists  and  Quakers;  but  as  the 
latter  were  required  to  take  oaths  as  qualifications  for 
holding  office  or  for  acting  as  jurors  or  witnesses  in 
judicial  procedings,  they,  of  course  the  great  mass  of 
the  population,  were  practically  disfranchised.  But 
the  story  of  the  arbitrary  measures  taken  by  the  Gov- 
ernor of  this  Colony,  Lord  Cornbury,  to  exclude  from 
office  or  the  control  of  public  affairs  all  except  those 
who  conformed  to  the  Church  of  England  is  too  well 
known  to  need  to  be  retold  here.  In  Maryland  the 
English  Church  was  established  in  1696,  and  one  of  the 
first  acts  of  the  newly  organized  Province  was  to  dis- 
franchise those  very  Catholics  and  their  children  by 
whom  the  doctrine  of  religious  liberty  had  been  estab- 
lished in  the  law  of  1649.  In  Carolina,  after  the  fan- 
ciful and  impracticable  Constitution  devised  for  it  by 
the  celebrated  philosopher  John  Locke  had  been  given 
up,  by  which  the  English  Church  had  been  established 
and  endowed  in  the  colony,  the  church  feeling  was  so 
strong  and  the  determination  to  secure  its  supremacy 
so  unjaelding,  that  an  Act  was  passed  in  1704  requir- 

27 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

ing  all  members  of  the  Assembly  to  take  the  sacra- 
ment according  to  the  rites  of  the  Church  of  England. 
**The  result  of  this  review  is  to  show  that  in  all  the 
Colonies  I  have  named,  except  perhaps  Rhode  Island, 
liberty  of  worship  was  the  rule,  excepting,  of  course, 
in  the  case  of  the  Roman  Catholics.  Throughout  the 
Colonies,  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  the 
man  who  did  not  conform  to  the  established  religion  of 
the  Colony,  whether  it  was  Congregationalism  in  New 
England,  or  the  Episcopal  form  elsewhere,  was  not  in 
the  same  position  in  regard  to  the  enjoyment  of  either 
civil  or  religious  rights  as  he  who  did  conform.  If  he 
were  a  Roman  Catholic,  he  was  everj^where  wholly  dis- 
franchised. For  him  there  was  not  even  the  legal  right 
of  public  worship.  If  he  were  a  Protestant  differing 
in  his  creed  from  the  type  of  Protestantism  adopted 
by  the  rulers,  although  he  could  freely  celebrate  in 
nearly  all  the  Colonies  his  peculiar  form  of  worship, 
he  was  nevertheless  excluded  from  any  share  in  public 
affairs.  He  could  neither  vote  nor  hold  office,  and  he 
was  forced  to  contribute  to  the  support  of  a  religious 
ministry  whose  teachings  he  in  his  heart  abhorred. 
And  this  condition  of  things,  extraordinary  as  it  seems 
to  us  now,  had  not  been  brought  about  by  any 
conscious,  arbitrary  despotism  on  the  part  of  the  rul- 
ers, but  was  the  work  of  good  but  narrow-minded  men 
who  were  simply  following  out  the  uniform  practice 
of  the  Christian  world,  and  who  no  doubt  honestly 

28 


JOHN    DICKINSON. 

BORN  MARYLAND,  NOVEMBER  13,   1732;    DIED  DELAWARE,  FEBRUARY  14,   1808. 

(see  over) 


JOHN   DICKINSON 


I 


I 


was  the  "  Penman  of  the  Revolution.     In  the  literature  of  that  strug- 
gle  his  position  is  as  pre-eminent  as  Washington  in  war,  Franklin  in         '■ 
diplomacy,  and  Morris  in   finance."     The   Dickinsons   first  settled  in  ^ 

Virginia,  but  were  in  Talbot  County  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Maryland 
in  1659.  John  Dickinson  was  born  at  Crosia-dore,  November  8,  1732. 
His  mother  was  Mary  Cadwalader  of  Philadelphia.  His  father,  Samuel 
Dickinson,  removed  to  Kent  County  near  Dover  in  1740.  Dickinson 
and  Philip  Barratt  knew  each  other  from  boyhood  and  were  friends 
although  they  did  not  always  act  together  politically.  July  19,  1770, 
Dickinson  married  Mary  Norris  the  daughter  of  Isaac  Norris,  the 
Speaker,  of  Fairhill,  Philadelphia.  December  22,  1779,  as  a  member 
of  the  Delaware  Assembly  Philip  Barratt  voted  for  John  Dickinson, 
Nicholas  Van  Dyke  and  George  Read  who  were  elected  delegates  to 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  Philip  Barratt  later  was  asked  to 
vote  against  Dickinson.  His  reply  was,  as  related  by  Hon.  Nathaniel 
Barratt  Smithers  "I  will  not  do  it  he  is  from  my  own  county,  we 
were  boys  together  and  he  thinks  he  is  right."  Asbury  was  forced 
to  seek  shelter  and  protection  of  Judge  White  and  Philip  Barratt  in 
Delaware  which  their  official  positions  enabled  them  to  afiFord  him, 
but  it  was  not  until  John  Dickinson  gave  Asbury  a  letter  of  commenda- 
tion to  the  Governor  of  Maryland  that  he  resumed  his  work  within  that 
State,  which  he  had  discontinued  from  March  10,  1778— as  he  could 
not  take  the  required  State  oath.  He  also  recalled  his  experience  of 
June  20,  1776,  "  I  was  fined  near  Baltimore  five  pounds  for  preaching 
the  gospel."  We  must  not  forget  also  the  close  relations  politically  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  as  up  to  the  Revolution  Delaware  had  the 
same  Governor  as  Pennsylvania  but  a  different  Assembly. 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

thought  that  in  so  acting  they  were  dong  the  highest 
service  by  obeying  the  will  of  God." 

Today  anyone  whether  he  be  Protestant  or  Catholic, 
Jew  or  Gentile,  Christian  or  Mohammedan,  may  in 
this  country  worship  his  God  in  any  way  he  pleases  not 
injurious  to  the  equal  rights  of  others.  Congress 
under  the  Constitution  and  its  amendments  can  make 
no  law  respecting  an  establishment  of  religion  or  pro- 
hibiting the  free  exercise  thereof  as  the  whole  power 
over  the  subject  of  religion  is  left  exclusively  to  the 
State.2^ 

Eeligious  liberty  is  our  dearest  possession,  and  while 
secured  to  us  by  our  State  Constitution,  we  should  not 
forget  its  origin  or  that  it  has  only  been  ours  little 
more  than  a  century.^^  The  Constitution  of  Delaware 
of  1792  provides  that  it  shall  be  'Hhe  duty  of  all  men 
frequently  to  assemble  together  for  the  public  worship 
of  the  author  of  the  universe,  and  piety  and  morality, 
in  which  the  prosperity  of  communities  depend  are 
thereby  promoted ;  yet  no  man  shall  or  ought  to  be  com- 
pelled to  attend  any  religious  worship  or  support  of 
any  place  of  worship,  or  to  the  maintenance  of  any  min- 
istry against  his  own  free  will  and  consent;  and  that 
no  power  shall  or  ought  to  be  vested  in  or  assumed  by 
any  magistrate  that  shall  in  any  case  interfere  with, 

"Davis  vs.  Beason,  133,  United  States  Reports,  p.  342;  Holy 
Trinity  Church,  143,  United  States  Reports,  p.  471;  In  Re  Spies, 
125,  United  States  Reports,  p.  181;  Reynolds  vs.  U.  S.,  98,  United 
States  Reports,  p,  145. 

"  "  Law  of  Delaware,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  28. 

29 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

or  in  any  manner  control  the  rights  of  conscience,  in 
the  free  exercise  of  religious  worship,  nor  a  preference 
given  by  law  to  any  religious  societies,  denominations 
or  modes  of  worship.  No  religious  test  shall  be  re- 
quired as  a  qualification  to  any  office  or  public  trust 
under  this  State.  The  rights  of  conscience  and  relig- 
ious liberty  as  you  will  at  once  perceive  are  fully 
protected  by  this  declaration  in  the  Constitution  of 
Delaware  of  1792,  and  it  is  also  worthy  of  mention  that 
Judge  Andrew  Barratt  was  one  of  the  eight  delegates 
from  Kent  County  who  helped  to  frame  the  constitu- 
tion of  which  this  is  a  part.  Ministers  not  ordained 
were  silenced  by  the  public  authorities  and  the  very 
men  who  had  left  England  to  gain  an  asylum  for  relig- 
ious freedom  were  refusing  toleration  to  any  religious 
opinions  but  their  own.  While  Pennsylvania  and  Del- 
aware were  not  without  their  sins  of  intolerance,  yet 
they  evinced  a  more  liberal  spirit  than  characterized 
some  of  their  sister  States. 

Pennsylvania  was  peopled  by  the  Dutch,  Swedes, 
English,  Germans,  Welsh,  Scotch,  Irish,  and  they 
brought  with  them  their  different  religions — Quaker, 
Lutheran,  German  Calvinists,  Episcopal,  Tunker  or 
Dunker,  Mennonites,  Schwenkfelders,  Mennonites, 
Moravians  and  Presbyterians.  It  must  not  be  forgot- 
ten that  while  Pennsylvania  was  peopled  by  Quakers 
and  Germans,  it  was  also  the  stronghold  of  the  Pres- 
byterians, as  the  first  American  Presbytery  was  estab- 
lished there  in  1705. 

30 


BORN  MAY  18,  1^81  ;  DIED  JULY  8,  1864.  ENSIGN  WAR  OF  1812;  GOVERNOR  OF  DELA- 
WARE JANUARY,  1830;  JUDGE  COURT  OF  COMMON  PLEAS,  1844.  HE  WAS  A  RESIDENT 
OF  MILTON  AND  A  BUSINESS  PARTNER  OF  JAMES  BARRATT  PRIOR  TO  1830.  HE  WA^ 
RECOGNIZED  AS  ONE  OF  THE  LEADING  METHODIST  LAYMEN  IN  THE  STATE.  HE  FRE- 
QUENTLY  ATTENDED  SERVICES   AT  BARRATT'S   CHAPEL. 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

This  then  was  the  condition  of  affairs  ecclesiastically 
speaking  when  John  Wesley,  the  apostle  of  Methodism, 
determined  to  send  a  missionary  to  America  in  the 
person  of  Francis  Asbury  who  arrived  in  1771,  then  in 
the  twenty-sixth  year  of  his  age,  having  been  born  on 
the  twentieth  of  August,  1745,  in  Handsworth,  about 
four  miles  from  Birmingham,  Staffordshire,  Eng- 
land. From  the  period  of  his  arrival  he  commenced 
preaching  the  Word  and  making  converts  to  the  cause 
with  a  full  knowledge  of  all  the  difficulties  enumerated, 
and  in  many  places  with  great  personal  danger  to  him- 
self. In  Asbury 's  journal  he  says :  ''Oct.  8, 1779.  Our 
difficulties  are  great,  we  have  not  a  sufficient  number 
of  proper  preachers.  Some  who  are  gifted  cannot  go 
into  all  the  States  on  account  of  the  oaths,  others  are 
under  bail  and  cannot  move  far,"  and  again  March 
15,  1780,  ''Bro.  Garretson  expects  to  come  out  of  jail 
by  the  favor  of  the  Governor  and  Council  of  Maryland 
in  spite  of  his  foes.  So  the  Lord  works  for  us. ' '  This 
was  indeed  a  time  of  trial  and  suffering.  There  were 
only  ten  preachers  altogether  and  they  were  all  English- 
men and  supposed  to  be  loyal  to  King  George  with  the 
exception  of  William  Watters  of  Harford  County, 
Maryland,  who  was  the  first  native  American  to  become 
a  regular  itinerant  preacher.  These  noble  men  with 
Asbury  at  their  head  suffered  every  privation  and  per- 
formed herculean  labors,  preaching  in  private  houses, 
balconies,  market  places,  barns,  and  in  the  country  in 
forests  and  open  fields  in  order  to  minister  to  the  relig- 

31 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

ious  needs  of  their  flocks,  or  as  Wakeley  eloquently 
says  ''With  no  sword  but  that  of  the  Spirit,  no  banner 
but  that  of  the  Cross  and  no  commander  but  our  spir- 
itual Joshua,  the  leader  of  the  Lord's  host,  they  went 
forth  to  glorious  war  having  for  their  motto  'Victory 
or  Death.'"  They  were  the  heroes  of  Methodism, 
their  great  object  being  to  promote  Christianity  in 
earnest. 

Christianity  (as  Judge  Duncan  held  in  Updegraph 
vs.  Commonwealth,  11  Sergeant  &  Rawle,  394)  is  and 
always  has  been  a  part  of  the  common  law  of  Pennsyl- 
vania— Christianity  without  the  spiritual  artillery  of 
European  countries,  for  this  Christianity  was  one  of 
the  considerations  of  the  royal  charter,  and  the  very 
basis  of  its  great  founder  William  Penn;  not  Chris- 
tianity founded  on  any  particular  tenets ;  not  Christi- 
anity with  an  established  church  and  tithes  and  spir- 
itual courts,  but  Christianity  with  liberty  of  conscience 
to  all  men.2® 

But  by  comparison,  darker  days  were  yet  to  come. 
The  murmurings  of  a  people  enraged  by  the  stamp 
act,  oppressed  by  taxation  and  unjust  laws,  began  to 
be  heard.  The  Farmer's  letters  of  John  Dickinson 
stated  the  colonial  view,  and  produced  a  profound  im- 
pression that  England  was  acting  unfairlj^    If  any 

"  Lectures,  "  The  United  States  a  Christian  Nation,"  by  Mr.  Justice 
David  J.  Brewer  of  U.  S.  S.  Ct.,  also,  "Our  Duty  as  Citizens  and 
The  Promise  and  Possibilities  of  the  Future,"  1908.  Also  see  "  A 
Reply  to  Justice  Brewer's  Lectui-es,"  by  Isaac  Hassler,  Young  Men's 
Hebrew  Association  of  Philadelphia,  1908,  denying  the  United  States 
is  a  Christian  Country. 

32 


THOMAS    McKEAN. 

BORN  CHESTER  CO.,  PA.,  MARCH   19,   1734;    DIED  PHILADELPHIA,  JUNE  24,   1817. 

(see  over) 


THOMAS  McKEAN 

one  of  the  friends  of  Philip  Barratt,  who  on  several  occasions  did 
kindly  acts  for  early  itinerants  at  his  request.  Born  in  Chester  County, 
Pennsylvania,  March  19th,  1734.  in  1757-1758  Clerk  of  Assembly  of 
Delaware.  In  1756  Deputy  Attorney  General  Sussex  County.  1762 
was  chosen  with  Caesar  Rodney  to  revise  and  print  the  laws.  Dele- 
gate from  Delaware  to  Stamp  Act  Congress  1765.  Judge  Court  of 
Common  Pleas  Delaware  1765-1766.  In  1771  Collector  of  Customs 
New  Castle.  Member  of  Constitution  Convention  of  Delaware  of  1776. 
Dec.  20,  1777,  Commander-in-Chief  of  Delaware  authorized  by  Assem- 
bly to  pay  Thomas  McKean  ^90  and  Philip  Barratt  ;^29  for  public  ser- 
vices (Minutes  of  Council  of  Delaware  p.  178).  Member  of  Assembly 
1773-1779  although  he  really  lived  in  Philadelphia.  Signer  of  Declara- 
tion of  Independence.  From  1774-1783  member  of  Congress  from 
Delaware.  President  of  Congress  and  Chief  Justice  of  Pennsylvania 
1777-1797.  When  in  Dover  it  was  his  custom  to  spend  at  least  a  night 
with  Philip  Barratt  as  he  had  done  on  his  way  from  Sussex  in  1756- 
1762.  On  Tuesday,  January  14,  1783,  Thomas  McKean,  Philip  Barratt 
and  Nathaniel  Waples  of  the  House,  and  John  Banning  and  Joshua 
Polk  of  the  Council  were  appointed  a  joint  Committee  of  Public 
Accounts  (Minutes  of  Council,  p.  762).  Governor  of  Pennsylvania 
1799-1808,  nine  years  altogether.  In  1781  he  occupied  three  offices. 
Member  of  Congress  from  Delaware,  President  of  Congress  and  Chief 
Justice  of  Pennsylvania.  He  died  June  24th,  1817,  aged  87  years  and 
is  buried  in  Christ  Church,  Philadelphia. 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

pretext  were  needed  in  addition  to  tlie  intolerance  of 
tlie  mass  of  the  people  at  this  time,  and  calculated  to 
increase  and  inflame  their  prejudice  and  mistrust  of 
Methodists,  especially  preachers  who  were  generally 
looked  upon  as  fanatics  and  misguided  people,  it  was 
supplied  by  John  Wesley's  supposed  opposition  to  the 
American  Eevolution  which  had  now  commenced.  Dr. 
Buckley  truly  says,  ' '  The  venerated  Wesley  dabbled  in 
political  affairs  in  the  old  country  and  his  followers 
were  looked  at  askance  on  that  account  in  this  coun- 
try." So  the  hardships  Methodists  were  obliged  to 
endure  were  increased,  they  were  despised,  persecuted 
and  derided.  It  was  hardly  safe  for  a  man  to  openly 
avow  himself  and  it  no  doubt  kept  hundreds  away 
from  the  Methodist  faith  who  might  have  been  open 
to  conviction  and  favorably  disposed.  The  colonial 
government  ended  with  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence on  July  4, 1776,  and  as  George  Alfred  Townsend 
remarks  in  his  ^' Early  Politics  of  Delaware,"  the 
"Church  of  England  ministers  left  the  country  and 
their  flocks  fell  to  the  Methodists."  Methodism  there- 
fore had  its  highest  social  status  on  the  Delaware  pen- 
insula, where  it  succeeded  the  Anglican  church. 

March  27,  1778,  Asbury  writes  in  concealment  at 
the  house  of  his  friend.  Judge  Thomas  White,  of  Kent 
County,  Delaware:  ''I  intend  to  abide  here  for  a  sea- 
son until  the  storm  is  abated.  The  grace  of  God  is 
a  sufficient  support  while  I  bear  the  reproach  of  men 
and  am  rewarded  evil  for  all  the  good  which  I  have 

33 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

done  and  desire  to  do  for  mankind.  I  want  for  no 
temporal  convenience  and  endeavor  to  improve  my 
time  by  devotion  and  study. ' '  On  the  second  of  April, 
1778,  the  Light  Horse  Patrol  under  Brigadier  General 
Smallwood  in  pursuance  of  an  order  of  Congress  of 
26th  of  March,  1778,  came  to  the  house  and  arrested 
Judge  White  and  bore  him  off,  leaving  his  wife  and 
children  with  Asbury  in  great  distress  of  mind,  who 
spent  the  next  day  in  fasting  and  prayer.  Judge 
White  having  been  seized  upon  the  charge  of  being  a 
Tory  and  a  Methodist  after  five  weeks'  detention  was 
allowed  to  return  home  on  parole  wliich  Congress 
did  not  discharge  until  August  3,  1779  (Journal  Con- 
gress, 1776,  p.  30). 30 

Stevens  in  his  "History  of  Methodism"  says:  "In 
the  year  1778  when  the  storm  was  at  its  highest  and 
persecution  raged  furiously,  Asbury  advisedly  con- 
fined himself  to  the  little  State  of  Delaware  where  the 
laws  were  rather  more  favorable  and  the  rulers  and  in- 
fluential men  were  somewhat  more  friendly.  For  a 
time  he  had  even  then  to  keep  himself  much  retired. 
He  found  an  asylum  in  the  house  of  his  firm  and  fast 
friend,  Thomas  White,  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Court 
of  Common  Pleas  in  Kent  County.  From  this  place 
of  retreat  he  could  correspond  with  his  suffering  breth- 
ren who  were  scattered  abroad.  The  preachers  often 
met  him  in  the  hospitable  family  of  Judge  White,  and 

""History  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,"  by  Rev.  Abel 
Stevens,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  307-314,  316,  159,  319,  321;  Vol.  II.,  pp.  173, 
360.    "  Women  of  Methodism,"  Stevens,  p.  220. 

34 


THE  HOME  OF  HARRY  OORSEY  GOUGH,  ON  THE  BEL  AIR  ROAD,  TWELVE  MILES  FROM  BALTIMORE,  MD.,  WHERE 
BISHOP  ASBURY  WAS  ENTERTAINED.  ALSO  PHILIP  BARRATT,  GOVERNOR  RICHARD  BASSETT  AND  JUDGE  THOMAS 
WHITE  WERE  THERE  FROM  TIME  TO  TIME.  IT  WAS  PARTIALLY  DESTROYED  BY  FIRE  BUT  WAS  REBUILT  BY 
JAMES   CARROLL    IN    1823. 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

lie  privately  held  with  them  a  conference  in  1779.  The 
family  which  thus  gave  refuge  to  him  and  to  not  a 
few  of  his  brethren  during  this  stormy  period  were 
notable  in  the  early  days  of  Methodism.  Like  that  of 
Gough  at  Perry  Hall,^!  of  Bassett  at  Bohemia  Manor 
and  of  Barratt  at  Barratt's  Chapel,  Kent,  its  name 
continually  recurs  in  the  journals  of  Asbury,  Coke, 
Garrett  son,  Abbott  and  in  other  early  Methodist  pub- 
lications.^2  xjp  ^^  ^i^^  ^^^^g  ^f  j^^g  conversion,  Philip 
Barratt  was  a  member  of  the  Church  of  England,  as 
were  his  friends.  Judge  Thomas  White^^  and  Hon. 
Eichard  Bassett.^* 

"^  Henry  Dorsey  Gough  was  the  friend  of  Judge  Thomas  White, 
Philip  Barratt  and  Richard  Bassett.  His  home,  "Perry  Hall," 
twelve  miles  from  Baltimore,  was  where  he  entertained  Asbury.  He 
and  his  wife  Prudence  Gough  were  prominent  Methodists.  Their 
daughter  Sophia  Gough  in  1787  married  James  Carroll.  They  num- 
ber among  their  descendants  James  Carroll  and  Charles  Ridgely 
Carroll,  the  Van  Ness's,  Ridgeleys,  Sargents,  Milligans,  Poultneys, 
Shippens,  Denisons  and  the  Edwin  Sehenck's,  all  prominent  families 
of  Baltimore.  "Eneyclopsedia  of  Methodism,"  by  Matthew  Simpson, 
1878,  p.  415.  "Carroll  Family,"  Old  Kent,  Maryland,  by  Hanson, 
Baltimore,  1876,  p.  155.  Lednum,  Rise  of  Methodism  (1859),  chap. 
XXIII.,  p.  153.  Life  of  Rev.  Wm.  Black  of  Nova  Scotia— Recolle*  - 
tions  of  an  Old  Itinerant,  p.  191,  192,  193,  201. 

"  "  Methodism  in  America,"  by  John  Lednum,  pp.  265,  410,  267- 
270,  205,  206.     Also  see  journals  of  Coke,  Asbury  and  Abbott. 

"  Henry  C.  Conrad's,  "  Samuel  "White  and  Judge  Thomas  White," 
XL.,  Papers  Hist.  Soc.  of  Delaware,  1903.  Also  Lednum's  "  Rise  of 
Methodism,"  p.  267.  Judge  White  witnessed  the  signature  of  Philip 
Barratt  to  his  deed  donating  the  ground  for  Barratt's  Chapel. 

"  Richard  Bassett  was  born  on  Bohemia  Manor,  as  was  Philip 
Barratt,  and  they  were  always  friends.  Fourteen  days  after  he  be- 
came Governor  on  January  23,  1799,  he  appointed  Andrew  Barratt 
Judge  of  the  Court  of  Common  Pleas  of  the  State  of  Delaware. 
(Deed  Book  F,  Vol.  II.,  folio  166,  Kent  Co.)     The  Delaware  Mirror 

35 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

He  realized  the  annoyances  sure  to  follow,  or  as  it  is 
ably  put  by  Dr.  Stevens:  ''These  memorable  historic 
families  who  though  associated  with  the  highest  social 
circles  of  their  times,  counted  not  their  opulence  nor 
their  lives  dear  unto  them,  choosing  rather  to  suffer 
persecution  with  the  people  of  God."  Philip  Barratt 
died  on  the  twenty-eighth  day  of  October,  1784,  aged  55 
years,  two  weeks  before  the  memorable  meeting  of 
Bishops  Coke  and  Asbury  at  the  chapel  now  known  by 
his  name.  By  his  will,  dated  May  18,  1783,  and  which 
was  probated  November  23,  1784,  he  devised  his  real 
estate  to  his  children  above  named,  and  requested  his 
friends,  Judge  Thomas  White,  Governor  Eichard  Bas- 
sett  and  Eichard  Lockwood,  to  partition  the  same 
among  them.  His  beloved  wife,  Miriam  S.  Barratt, 
and  son,  Andrew  Barratt,  he  appointed  executors.^^ 

All  church  historians,  including  Bishop   Simpson 

of  the  Times,  December  18th,  1802,  states  Governor  Bassett  removed 
Hall,  Rodney  and  Dr.  Tilton  because  they  were  republicans  and  not 
a  republican  remained  in  commission  from  Governor  down  to  Con- 
stable. He  drew  and  witnessed  Philip  Barratt's  will.  See  Hon. 
Robert  E.  Pattison's  "  Life  of  Richard  Bassett,"  XXIX.,  Papers  of 
Hist.  Soc.  of  Delaware;  "Colonial  Mansions,"  by  Thomas  Allen 
Glenn,  1899,  p.  136 ;  "Ancient  Families  of  Bohemia  Manor,"  by  Rev. 
Chas,  Payson  Mallory,  VII.,  Papers  Hist.  Soc.  of  Delaware,  1888; 
Lednum's  "Rise  of  Methodism,"  p.  272,  1859. 

'^Dr.  Edward  White  was  the  nephew  of  Judge  Thomas  White. 
Member  State  Convention  to  ratify  U.  S.  Constitution,  December  7, 
1787.  State  Senate  Kent  Co.,  1793.  Member  of  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives with  Philip  Barratt  in  1782.  (Conrad's  "History  of 
Delaware,"  Vol.  1,  pp.  155,  266,  276.)  Dr.  White  became  a 
Methodist  in  1777,  and  in  1778  removed  to  Dorchester,  Md.  See 
Lednum's  "Rise  of  Methodism,"  pp.  202,  220.  After  death  of  Philip 
Barratt  of  Barratt's  Chapel  he  married  his  widow,  Miriam  Sipple 
Barratt. 

36 


RICHARD    BASSETT 

1735—1815 

CAPTAIN  CONTINENTAL  ARMY;  STATE  COUNCIL  OF  DELAWARE,  1776-1786; 
UNITED  STATES  CONSTITUTIONAL  CONVENTION,  1787;  UNITED  STATES  SENATOR, 
1787-1793;  CHIEF  JUSTICE  COURT  OF  COMMON  PLEAS,  1793-1798;  GOVERNOR 
OF  DELAWARE,  1797-1801;  FRIEND  AND  POLITICAL  ALLY  OF  PHILIP  BARRATT,  OF 
BARRATT'S   CHAPEL;    BUILT   WESLEY   CHAPEL,    DOVER     DELAWARE. 

FROM  COPY  IN  POSSESSION  OF   NOHRIS  S.   BARRATT. 


I 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

and  Eev.  Dr.  J.  M.  Buckley,  have  fallen  into  an  error 
in  supposing  that  Philip  Barratt  was  ''Judge  Bar- 
ratt, "  who  in  point  of  fact  was  his  son,  and  in  this  way 
Judge  Andrew  Barratt  has  received  credit  for  his 
father's  work  in  the  vineyard  of  the  Lord  in  addition 
to  his  own,  which  although  of  a  different  character 
was  no  less  earnest  or  effective.  Asbury  pathetically 
notes  in  his  journal,  February  26,  1810:  ''Most  of  my 
old  friends  in  this  quarter  have  fallen  asleep  but  their 
children  are  generally  with  me,  and  the  three  genera- 
tions baptised — Dined  with  Philemon  Green  and  lodged 
with  Andrew  Barratt — Preached  at  Barratts  Chapel. ' ' 
Some  time  after  the  decease  of  Philip  Barratt  on  Mon- 
day, March  28, 1809,  Asbury  paused  there  with  no  little 
emotion  in  his  rapid  course  over  the  country;  "I 
preached  [he  writes]  at  Barratt 's  Chapel  and  bap- 
tized some  children.  I  had  powerful  feelings  of  sym- 
pathy for  the  children  and  grand-children  of  that  holy 
man  in  life  and  death,  Philip  Barratt.''  When  in  ex- 
treme age  shortly  before  his  death  on  Friday,  April  14, 
1815,  the  veteran  Bishop  passed  over  the  same  region, 
for  the  last  time,  he  ascended  the  old  pulpit  of  Bar- 
ratt's  Chapel  and  preached  once  more,  amid  its  hal- 
lowed memories,  though  in  great  feebleness  of  body. 
Judge  Andrew  Barratt,  then  fifty-nine  years  old,  the 
son  of  his  old  friend,  was  there  to  welcome  him  to 
dinner.  ' '  Ah ! ' '  said  the  Judge, ' '  I  know  that  my  father 
and  mother  thought  more  of  him  than  of  any  other  man 
on  earth,  and  well  does  it  become  their  son  to  respect 

37 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

him."  It  must  not  be  forgotten  there  was  only  eleven 
years  difference  in  their  ages.  He  took  pleasure  in 
his  old  age  in  recalling  such  recollections  to  early 
scenes  and  early  friends  continually  occurring  in  his 
diary.^^ 

Journal  of  Francis  Asbury,  N.  Bangs,  New  York,  1821. 

1779,  May  3.  Preached  at  Drawbridge  to  40.  (Barratt's),  Vol.  I., 
238. 

1779,  June  16.    Preached  at  Barratt's  house.     Vol.  I.,  240. 

1779,  August  8.  Preached  at  Drawbridge  to  300.  (Barratt's), 
Vol.  I.,  246. 

1779,  August  22.  Preached  at  Drawbridge  to  300.  (Barratt's), 
Vol.  I.,  248. 

1779,  September  5.  Preached  at  Drawbridge  to  300.  (Barratt's), 
Vol.  I.,  249. 

1779,  October  3.  Preached  at  Drawbridge  to  200.  (Barratt's), 
Vol.  I.,  252. 

1780,  March  20.    Barratt's  Chapel— Philip  Barratt.    Vol.  I.,  275. 
1780,  November  3.     Barratt's  Chapel — Quarterly  meeting.    Vol. 

I.,  316. 

1780,  November  3.     Stayed  at  Barratts.     Vol.  I.,  316. 

1780,  November  5.    Barratt's  Chapel — preached.    Vol.  I.,  316. 

1780,  November  6.    Barratt's  Chapel — preached.     Vol  I.,  317. 

1780,  November  18.  Barratt's  Chapel — rode  to  and  exhorted. 
Vol.  I.,  319. 

1781,  January  24.    Barratt's  Chapel — preached.    Vol.  I.,  325. 

1781,  October  27.  Barratt's  Chapel — quarterly  meeting.  Vol.  I., 
352. 

1782,  September  27.  Barratt's  Chapel— preached  3  P.M.  Vol.  I., 
360. 

1784,  October  2.    Barratt's  Chapel— preached.     Vol.  I.,  374. 

1784,  November  15.  Barratt's  Chapel — met  Thomas  Coke,  Vol. 
I.,  376. 

1789,  July  31.    Barratt's  Chapel— preached.     Vol.  II.,  52. 

1791,  September  16.  Dr.  Elijah  Barratt  built  Chapel,  Camden, 
Del.    Vol.  III.,  143. 

-  Vol.  II.,  Scharf's  "  History  of  Delaware,"  p.  1156. 

38 


BISHOP  FRANCIS  ASBURY 

BORN,  HANDSWORTH,  STAFFORDSHIRE,  ENG.,  AUGUST  20,    1745 
DIED,  SPOTTSYLVANIA,  VA.,  MARCH  31,  1816 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

1809,  March  27.  Barratt's  Chapel — preached  and  baptised.  Vol. 
III.,  261. 

1810,  March  25.  Barratt's  Chapel — Lodged  with  Andrew  Barratt. 
Vol.  III.,  286. 

1810,  March  26.    Barratt's  Chapel— preached.    Vol.  III.,  286. 

1813,  April  20.  Barratt's  Chapel — preached,  dined  at  Dover. 
Vol.  III.,  346. 

1815,  April  14.  Barratt's  Chapel — preached,  dined  with  Andrew 
Barratt.    Vol.  HI.,  379. 

Upon  Asbury's  first  appearance  in  Delaware  as  a 
missionary  appointed  by  Wesley  so  earnest  and  con- 
vincing was  lie  in  preaching  the  Gospel  that  conviction 
and  conversion  in  large  numbers  followed.  He  visited 
all  parts  of  the  Delaware-Maryland  peninsula  and  was 
most  successful  in  interesting  and  awakening  not  only 
the  plain  people,  but  some  of  the  most  prominent  citi- 
zens and  their  families,  who  through  him  became  ser- 
vants of  Christ  and  allied  themselves  with  the  Meth- 
odist Church.  Dr.  McConnelP^  places  the  number  at 
one  hundred  thousand  souls  and  laments,  ''The  Church 
in  America  lost  the  most  active  part  of  its  membership 
at  the  very  time  it  was  about  to  need  them  most. 
He  found  Delaware  in  extremis  in  a  religious  sense, 
but  when  he  died  the  Methodist  Church  was  not  only 
organized  but  firmly  established  and  mainly  through 
his  efforts.  Genial  in  manner,  persuasive  in  speech 
and  a  warm-hearted  living  exponent  of  the  Gospel 
which  he  preached,  he  was  one  of  those  rare  personal- 
ities whom  contact  with  and  labor  among  men  always 
leave  a  lasting  impression  for  good. 

"Dr.  McConnell's  "The  English  Church  in  the  Colonies,"  pp. 
144, 171,  172. 

39 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

As  Dr.  H.  B.  Eidgaway  tells  us:  "He  became  at 
once  the  miglity  personality  around  which  Methodism 
gathered.  What  Washington  was  to  the  nation  As- 
bury  was  to  the  Methodist  Church — its  center  of 
strength.  He  was  everywhere  present  animating  by 
his  zeal,  guiding  by  his  counsels  and  shaping  into  a 
living  unity  the  widely  scattered  societies.  He  did  not 
so  much  say  to  the  preachers,  Go,  as.  Follow  where  I 
go.  .  .  .  His  love  of  family,  country,  possessions,  wit, 
comfort — all  were  placed  on  the  altar  of  methodism.^^ 

'  He  lived  to  turn  his  slower  feet 
Towards  the  western  setting  sun. 
To  see  his  harvest  all  complete, 
His  dream  fulfilled,  his  duty  done.' " 

Charles  Chauncey  in  1743  in  his  ''Seasonable 
Thoughts"  attacked  revivalists  in  New  England,  and 
at  the  present  day  writers  like  T.  M.  Davenport,  ana- 
lyzing the  psychology  of  revivals,  decry  emotional 
preaching  by  which  religious  enthusiasm  is  excited 
and  tell  us  the  path  of  Christian  nurture  and  not  re- 
vival rapture  is  the  saner  method  of  awakening  the 
religious  sense,  but  however  this  may  scientifically 
appear  now,  the  earnest  methods  pursued  by  Asbury 
and  his  preachers  produced  results  of  which  no  Meth- 
odist need  feel  ashamed,  and  it  is  admitted  the  fervor 
of  their  piety,  and  the  enthusiasm  of  their  methods 

"Ridgaway,  "Personnel  of  the  Christmas  Conference,"  1885, 
p.  136. 

40 


BfSHOF 


.;>COFAL  CHURCH 


BISHOP  ASBURY,  ON  HIS  WAY  TO  ATTEND  THE  GENERAL  CONFERENCE  AT  BALTIMORE, 
DIED  MARCH  31,  1816,  AT  THE  HOUSE  OF  HIS  FRIEND,  GEORGE  ARNOLD,  IN  SPOTT- 
SYLVANIA,  VA.  HIS  BODY  WAS  SUBSEQUENTLY  INTERRED  UNDER  THE  PULPIT  OF  THE 
EUTAW  STREET  CHURCH,  BALTIMORE.  THIS  CHUkCH  IS  BOUNDED  BY  EUTAW  STREET, 
MULBERRY  STREET,  JASPER  STREET,  AND  EUTAW  COURT.  BISHOP  McKENDREE 
PREACHED  THE  SERMON.  THIS  SLAB  INCLOSED  THE  DOOR  OF  THE  VAULT  AT  THE 
BACK  OF  THE  CHURCH.  FORTY  YEARS  AFTER  THE  BODY  WAS  REMOVED,  BUT  WHERE 
IT  WAS   REINTERRED   IS   UNKNOWN. 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

tended  to  create  a  distinction  between  them  and  the 
lethargic  clergy  of  the  Church  of  England.^^ 

Andrew,  eldest  son  of  Philip  and  Miriam  Barratt, 
was  bom  September  22,  1756,  and  on  December  10, 
1778,  married  Ann  Clarke,  daughter  of  Hon.  John 
Clarke,^*'  who  was  an  earnest  and  highly  esteemed 
Methodist.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Kent  County  bar 
in  1779.  The  positions  of  honor  and  trust  he  held — 
Sheriff  1780-1792;  member  of  Constitutional  Conven- 
tion, 1792;  Judge  Court  of  Common  Pleas  and  High 
Court  of  Errors  and  Appeals,  1799-1812 ;  Speaker  of 
the  Senate,  1812-13  and  14;  Commissioner  under  Act 
April  15,  1813,  for  general  defence  of  State  of  Dela- 
ware; Presidential  Elector,  1816  and  1820,  besides 
other  appointments  by  the  Assembly —  show  the  high 
regard  in  which  he  was  held.  He  must  have  had  great 
influence  with  the  people  of  Delaware  to  have  thus  held 
public  office  almost  continuously  for  forty  years  from 
1780  to  1820,  within  one  year  of  his  death.^^ 

On  the  tenth  day  of  January,  1796,  by  a  Deed  of 
Emancipation  duly  recorded  at  Dover  in  Deed  Book  H, 
Vol.  2,  p.  264,  Andrew  Barratt,  to  use  his  own  words, 

""American  Church  Historical  Series,"  Vol.  7,  C.  C.  Tiffany, 
p.  45. 

"  John  Clark,  Member  of  Boston  Relief  Committee,  Kent  Co., 
July,  1774  (Vol.  1,  Scharf  218),  Member  Constitution  Convention, 
August  27,  1776,  Kent  Co.;  Judge  Coiui  of  Common  Pleas,  Kent 
Co.,  Apiil  5,  1777,  and  again  February  6,  1779,  when  he  was  com- 
missioned Chief  Justice  ( Scharf 's  "History  of  Delaware,"  Vol.  I., 
523  and  563). 

"  Conrad's  "  History  of  Delaware,"  p.  892. 

41 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

''being  fully  persuaded  that  liberty  is  the  natural 

birthright  of  all  mankind  and  keeping  any  in  perpetual 

slavery  is  contrary  to  the  injunctions  of  Christ,"  for 

which  reason  ''he  did  manumit  and  set  absolutely  free 

all  his  negroes,  thirteen  in  all,  so  that  henceforth  they 

shall  be  deemed,  adjudged  and  taken  as  and  for  free 
people.  "^2 

The  question  arises.  Who  persuaded  Andrew  Bar- 
ratt  to  do  this  noble  act?  Why  Asbury  of  course. 
Andrew  Barratt,  while  regarded  as  well-to-do  for  his 
day,  could  not  have  been  worth  more  than  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars,  so  his  voluntary  manumission  of 
his  slaves,  without  which  he  could  not  carry  on  his 
farm,  who  were  worth  in  the  market  several  thousand 
dollars  in  gold,  for  conscience  sake  alone,  is  a  devotion 
to  principle  such  as  can  only  excite  our  warmest  ad- 
miration and  commendation  when  one  stops  to  con- 

"  Scharf  in  Vol.  II.  of  "  History  of  Delaware,"  p.  1155,  states 
Andrew  Gray  (the  Grandfather  of  Hon.  George  Gray,  now  Judge  of 
the  Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States)  owned  465  acres  and  lived 
upon  Bartlett's  lot  in  1775.  This  was  devised  to  him  by  Andrew 
Caldwell  (Kent  Deed  Book  G,  2,  169),  whose  daughter,  Jean  Cald- 
well Gray,  was  first  cousin  of  Miriam  Sipple  Barratt,  wife  of  Philip 
Barratt.  February  25, 1831,  Andrew  Gray  sold  this  tract  to  Susannah 
"Warren  except  his  burial  ground  (Deed  Book  D,  3  p.  332,  Kent  Co.), 
and  on  p.  1169,  Vol.  II.,  Scharf  states  in  a  note,  Drumner  Gray,  an 
aged  freeman,  who  died  in  1840,  could  be  seen  in  his  cart  drawn  by 
his  oxen  early  Sunday  morning  on  his  way  to  Barratt's  Chapel, 
where  in  the  gallery  the  colored  people  worshipped  in  those  days  and 
held  class  meetings  before  the  white  folks  arrived.  Back  of  these 
historic  walls  of  Methodism  and  of  the  more  recent  mortuary  city  of 
evergreen  and  marble  are  the  graves  of  those  early  Christians  of  the 
colored  race."  Drumner  Gray  said  the  last  herd  of  buffalo  on  Murder- 
kill  Neck  was  in  a  meadow  on  the  farm  of  his  master,  Andrew  Gray. 

42 


I 


DR.   ELIJAH    BARRATT 


SON  OF  PHILIP  BARRATT,  OF  BARRATT'S  CHAPEL.  BORN  APRIL  29,  1770;  DIED  APRIL, 
1809;  STUDIED  MEDICINE  UNDER  HIS  BROTHER-IN-LAW,  DR.  NATHANIEL  LUFF;  READ 
IN  1791  ESSAY  ON  INFLUENZA  BEFORE  DELAWARE  STATE  MEDICAL  SOCIETY,  OF  WHICH 
HE  WAS  A  MEMBER;  MARRIED  MARGARET  FISHER,  A  DESCENDANT  OF  JOHN  FISHER, 
WHO  CAME  ON  THE   "  WELCOME  "   WITH   WILLIAM    PENN.      (See  Fisher  Genealogy.) 


Barratfs  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

sider  the  financial  sacrifice  involved.  It  speaks  well 
for  Methodism  and  her  teaching  which  was  opposed  to 
slavery.  It  required  great  moral  qualities  to  do  as  he 
did  and  too  much  credit  cannot  be  accorded  him  for 
it.  His  father  Philip  Barratt,  his  brothers  Caleb  Bar- 
ratt  and  Dr.  Elijah  Barratt,  and  a  cousin  Samuel  Bar- 
ratt also  manumitted  their  slaves.  The  fact  that  two 
of  these  deeds  were  acknowledged  before  "Andrew 
Barratt,  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Court  of  Common 
Pleas  of  the  State  of  Delaware,"  is  more  than  a  coin- 
cidence.^^ In  Andrew  Barratt 's  family  Bible  are  the 
following  entries  in  his  handwriting: 

"Mariah,  daughter  of  Bet,  was  born  in  May,  1813. 
This  child  I  gave  to  Sack,  its  father,  at  the  death  of 
the  mother,  which  happened  in  February,  1814,  same 
day  after  my  son." 

"Bill,  the  son  of  Liza,  was  born  August  10,  1813. 
Harriet,  daughter  of  Liza,  was  born,  February,  1818. 
Negro  Comfort,  formerly  the  property  of  Grand- 
mother Sipple  (nee  Mary  Hunn,  wife  of  Waitman 
Sipple,  Jr.),  is  supposed  to  be  74  years  of  age  Christ- 
mas Day,  1813.  She  departed  this  life  winter  of  1817 
about  80  years  of  age." 

Andrew  Barratt  took  a  lively  interest  in  all  that  ap- 

"  Manumissions,  Caleb  Barratt,  Deed  Book  K,  Vol.  2,  p.  227, 
Dover,  Kent  County,  Delaware,  1808;  Manumissions,  Caleb  Barratt, 
Deed  Book  Q,  Vol.  2,  p.  74,  Dover,  Kent  County,  Delaware,  1815; 
Manumissions,  Caleb  Barratt,  Deed  Book  G,  Vol.  2,  p.  11,  Dover, 
Kent  County,  Delaware,  1801.  Dr.  Elijah  Barratt  built  a  Chapel  at 
Camden,  Delaware,  September  16,  1791.  See  Asbury's  Journal, 
Vol.  II.,  143.  Dr.  Barratt  was  Justice  of  the  Peace,  1793.  Scharp, 
"  History  of  Delaware,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  473-483;  Vol.  II.,  p.  1133. 

43 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

pertained  to  the  Chapel  upon  which  he  expended  the 
sum  of  $1,000  after  the  death  of  his  father.     He  is 
described  physically  as  a  large,  fine  looking  man  and  is 
always  spoken  of  as  the  "pious  Judge  Barratt"  upon 
the  authority  of  Asbury,  in  whose  journal  his  name 
frequently  appears  but  always  in  brief,  though  signifi- 
cant allusion.     Such  (says  Stevens)  were  some  of  the 
influential  supporters  of  Asbury  in  his  persecutions 
when  the  Revolutionary  storm  swept  over  the  country. 
They  protected  him  and  at  last  procured  him  liberty 
to  travel  and  preach.     He  seems  to  have  had  peculiar 
success  in  gathering  about  the  Methodist  standard  in 
these  days  of  its  humiliation,  devout  families  of  the 
higher  classes.    In  most  of  the  middle  provinces  there 
were  now  examples  of  wealth  and  social  influence  con- 
secrated to  the  struggling  cause;  opulent  mansions 
opened  with  pious  welcome  to  the  travel  worn  itiner- 
ants, and  made  not  only  asylums  for  them  but  sanc- 
tuaries of  worship  for  their  humble  people.     On  Sun- 
day, November  15,  1784,  wearied  and  worn  by  travel 
and  preaching  he  arrived  on  Sunday  during  public 
worship,  at  his  friend  Barratt 's  Chapel.    A  man  of 
small  stature,  ruddy  complexion,  brilliant  eyes,  long 
hair,  musical  voice,  and  gowned  as  an  English  clergy- 
man was  officiating.    Asbury  ascended  the  pulpit  and 
embraced  and  kissed  him  before  the  whole  assembly, 
for  the  itinerant  recognized  him  as  another  messenger 
from  Wesley  come  to  his  relief  after  the  desertion  of 
all  his  English  associates,  a  man  who  had  become  a 

44 


Barr alt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

chieftain  of  Methodism  in  England,  Ireland  and  Wales 
only  second  to  Wesley  himself.  This  man  whom 
Asbury  mourning  his  death  years  afterwards,  charac- 
terized him  as  ''the  greatest  man  of  the  last  century 
in  Christian  labors,"  not  excluding  Whitfield  or  Wes- 
ley, represented  in  the  humble  pulpit  of  Barratt's 
Chapel  the  most  momentous  revolution  in  American 
Methodism.  He  was  the  Eev.  Thomas  Coke,  LL.D.,  of 
Jesus  College,  Oxford,  but  now  the  first  Bishop  of  the 
western  hemisphere.  Asbury 's  consecration  to  the 
episcopate  was  the  first  Protestant  ordination  of  the 
kind  in  the  new  world,  but  Coke's  was  the  first  for  it. 
Lednum  mentions  the  following  chapels  in  Delaware  at 
the  time  of  Coke's  arrival  in  America.  Kent  County, 
Forest,  Barratt's,  White's,  Bethel  and  Moore's.  In 
Sussex  County,  Cloud's,  Blackiston's,  Friendship  in 
Thoroughfare  Neck,  and  Wesley  Chapel  in  Dover. 

Up  to  the  close  of  the  year  1784  "the  people  called 
Methodists"  in  this  country,  as  in  England,  were 
simply  "societies,"  under  the  supervision  of  Mr.  Wes- 
ley, none  of  their  preachers  being  permitted  to  baptise 
or  administer  the  Lord's  Supper,  but  being  required 
to  counsel  and  direct  all  the  members  to  follow  their 
example  in  seeking  these  sacred  ordinances  at  the 
hands  of  ministers  who  had  been  ordained  by  Bishops 
of  the  Established  Church  of  England.  There  is  small 
wonder  that  some  of  them,  preachers  as  well  as  not  a 
few  of  their  people,  grew  very  restive  under  such  irri- 
tating restriction;  especially  after  Lowth,  Bishop  of 

45 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

London,  refused  Wesley's  request  to  ordain  at  least 
two  priests  who  could  administer  the  sacraments  to 
American  Methodists/^  but  the  affectionate  reverence 
felt  for  Mr.  Wesley  and  the  towering  influence  of  his 
American  representative,  the  intrepid  and  self-sacri- 
ficing Asbury,  had  hitherto  stayed  the  rising  tide  of 
dissent,  with  a  brief  exception  of  very  limited  extent. 
Now,  however,  the  United  States  had  been  recognized 
by  Great  Britain  as  an  independent  nation,  and  ecclesi- 
astical independence  was  naturally  coincident  with 
civil  and  political  freedom.  Wesley  did  not  intend  it 
to  be  a  separate  church  but  a  missionary  movement 
within  the  Church  of  England,  of  which  he  was  a  mem- 
ber and  which  he  believed  to  be  the  best  church  in  the 
world.  Dr.  McConnell  sums  it  up  by  stating:  ''But 
the  great  spreading  branch  grew  too  heavy  to  be  sus- 
tained by  the  slender  stem  of  the  American  Church, 
.  .  .  and  it  broke  away  by  its  own  weight."^' 

Mr.  Wesley  showed  himself  equal  to  the  demands 
of  the  situation.  Hence  his  carefully  prepared  plan 
for  organizing  his  American  societies  into  an  inde- 

"  Steven's  "  Methodism,"  p.  75.  McMaster's  "  History  of  the 
People  of  the  United  States,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  56. 

*  Dr.  McConnell's  "  English  Church  in  the  Colonies,"  pp.  171-172. 

Thomas  Vasey,  two  years  after  his  arrival,  for  some  reason 
accepted  reordination  at  the  hands  of  Bishop  "William  White  of 
The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church.  He  soon  afterwards  returned  to 
London  and  accepted  a  curacy.  But  the  old  Methodist  habit  was 
strong,  and  he  returned  to  the  Wesleyan  connection  and  was 
stationed  at  City  Road  Chapel,  where  he  read  the  liturgy  of  the 
Church  of  England  as  Mr.  Wesley's  will  directed.  He  subsequently 
lived  in  Leeds,  where  he  died,  December  27,  1826. 

46 


REV.  THOMAS  COKE,  LL.  D. 

THE   FIRST   BISHOP  OF   THE    METHODIST   EPISCOPAL   CHURCH    IN 
AMERICA,  WHO  WAS   PREACHING   AT   BARRATT'S   CHAPEL, 
SUNDAY,  NOVEMBER    14,  1784,    WHEN    REV.    FRAN- 
CIS ASBURY  CAME  UP  IN   THE  PULPIT 


Barratt^s  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

pendent  Episcopal  Church.  Having  ordained  two  of 
his  preachers,  Eichard  Whatcoat  and  Thomas  Vasey, 
deacons  and  elders,  he  set  apart  Thomas  Coke,  LL.D., 
a  presbyter  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  one  of  his 
own  most  accomplished  and  efficient  helpers,  as  super- 
intendent of  the  Methodists  in  North  America,  con- 
secrating him  for  the  same,  after  the  form  of  the 
Church  ritual,  by  prayer  and  the  imposition  of  his 
hands,  with  those  of  two  other  presbyters.  This 
occurred  September  2,  1784,  Dr.  Coke  being  appointed 
by  Mr.  Wesley  to  act  jointly  with  Mr.  Asbury.  With 
Messrs.  Whatcoat  and  Vasey,  the  doctor  landed  in  New 
York,  November  3,  and  in  two  days  reached  Dover. 
He  states  in  his  journal:  ''Here  we  were  kindly  re- 
ceived by  Mr.  (Richard)  Bassett,  of  the  Executive 
Council,  who  is  building  us  a  large  chapel.  Here  we 
met  Freeborn  Garrett  son.  Sunday,  November  14, 
Richard  Whatcoat  preached  in  the  courthouse  at  6  a.m. 
to  a  very  good  congregation.  About  eleven  o  'clock  we 
arrived  at  Barratt's  Chapel,  so  called  from  our  friend 
who  built  it,  and  who  went  to  heaven  a  few  days  ago. 
In  this  chapel  in  the  midst  of  a  forest  I  had  a  noble 
congregation  to  whom  I  endeavored  to  set  forth  the 
Redeemer  as  our  'wisdom,  righteousness,  sanctifica- 
tion,  and  redemption.'  After  the  sermon  a  plain,  ro- 
bust man  came  up  to  me  in  the  pulpit  and  kissed  me. 
I  thought  it  could  be  no  other  than  Mr.  Asbury,  and  I 
was  not  deceived."  In  his  journal  Mr.  Asbury  has 
this  reference  to  the  meeting :  ' '  Sunday,  14,  I  came  to 

47 


Barratt's  Chapel  and -Methodism. 

Barratt's  Chapel;  here,  to  my  great  joy,  I  met  those 
dear  men  of  God,  Dr.  Coke  and  Eichard  Whatcoat. 
We  were  greatly  comforted  together."  Evidently  he 
had  heard  the  sermon,  for  he  adds,  ''The  doctor 
preached  on  'Christ  our  wisdom,  righteousness,  sancti- 
fication,  and  redemption.'  "  The  occasion  was  a  quar- 
terly meeting  at  which  were  present  "fifteen  of  the 
preachers  and  a  host  of  the  laity. ' '  One  of  the  latter 
thus  describes  the  scene:  "While  Coke  was  preaching 
jisbury  came  into  the  congregation.  A  solemn  pause 
and  deep  silence  took  place  at  the  close  of  the  sermon, 
as  an  interval  for  introduction  and  salutation.  As- 
bury  and  Coke,  with  hearts  full  of  brotherly  kindness, 
approached,  embraced  and  saluted  each  other.  The 
other  preachers,  at  the  same  time,  were  melted  into 
sympathy  and  tears.  The  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper  was  administered  by  the  doctor  and  Whatcoat 
tn  several  hundred,  and  it  was  a  blessed  season  to 
many  souls,  while  in  the  holy  ordination  they  dis- 
cerned, through  faith,  the  Lord's  body  and  showed 
forth  His  death.  It  is  the  more  affecting  to  my  mem- 
ory as  it  was  the  first  time  I  ever  partook  of  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  the  first  time  that  the  ordinance 
was  ever  administered  among  the  Methodists  (in  this 
country)  by  their  own  regularly  ordained  preachers." 
So  writes  Ezekiel  Cooper,  then  a  young  man  of  twenty- 
one,  who  was  induced  at  this  meeting  to  join  the  itin- 
erant ranks,  and  subsequently  became  one  of  the  most 

48 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

useful  and  distinguished  preachers  of  Methodism.^^'* 
Dr.  Coke  adds:  ''I  administered  the  sacrament,  after 
preaching,  to  five  or  six  hundred  communicants,  and 
held  a  love  feast.  It  was  the  best  season  I  ever  knew, 
except  one  in  Ireland.  After  dining  with  eleven  of 
our  preachers  at  Sister  (Miriam)  Barratt's  about  one 
mile  from  the  chapel,  Mr.  Asbury  and  I  had  a  private 
conversation  on  the  future  management  of  our  affairs 
in  America.  He  informed  me  that  he  had  received 
some  intimation  of  my  arrival  on  the  continent  and 
that  he  thought  it  probable  I  might  meet  him  that  day 
and  have  something  of  importance  to  communicate  to 
him  from  Mr.  Wesley,  and  that  he  had  therefore  col- 
lected a  considerable  number  of  preachers  to  form  a 
council;  and  if  they  were  of  opinion  that  it  would  be 
expedient  immediately  to  call  a  conference  it  should 
be  done."  The  council  of  preachers  unanimously  de- 
cided to  call  a  Conference  of  all  the  preachers  to  meet 
in  Baltimore  on  Christmas  Eve;  and  Freeborn  Gar- 
rettson  was  sent  off  to  give  notice  throughout  the  con- 
nection. Dr.  Coke  further  records  that  "Mr.  Asbury 
and  I  have  agreed  to  use  our  joint  endeavors  to  estab- 
lish a  school  or  college.  I  baptized  thirty  or  forty 
infants  and  seven  adults.  We  had  indeed  a  precious 
time  at  the  baptism  of  the  adults. ' ' 

These  are  the  facts  that  invest  Barratt's  Chapel 
with  rare  historic  interest: 

*'"  Rev.  Ezekiel  Cooper  baptised  the  late  Ambassador  to  England 
Thomas  F.  Bayard  in  the  rites  of  the  Methodist  Church. 

49 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

1.  The  place  in  which  Dr.  Coke  and  Mr.  Asbury  first 
met. 

2.  The  place  where  sacramental  ordinances  were 
first  administered  in  this  country  by  duly  authorized 
Methodist  preachers  to  Methodist  communicants. 

Stevens  says,  ' '  Thus  we  reach  again  the  memorable 
interview  at  Barratt's  Chapel,  and  here  in  the  forest 
solitudes  the  momentous  scheme  of  Coke's  mission  are 
fully  disclosed.  The  first  general  conference  of  Ameri- 
can Methodists  was  appointed,  and  Garrettson  set 
off  like  an  arrow  to  summon  it  together  and  the  pro- 
ject of  Dickins  for  a  Methodist  College  revived.  It 
was  with  prayerful  counsels,  sacramental  solemnities, 
liberal  devisings  and  with  singing  and  shouting  that 
the  young  denomination  prepared  in  the  Woodland 
Retreat  to  enter  upon  its  new  and  worldwide  des- 
tinies. ' ' 

The  Christmas  Conference  or  the  First  American 
General  Conference  was  held  in  Lovely  Lane  Church 
in  Baltimore,  Md.,  on  Friday,  December  24,  1784. 
Garrettson  had  sped  his  way  over  1,200  miles  in  six 
weeks,  summoning  the  itinerants  to  the  Conference, 
and  on  his  return  found  sixty  out  of  eighty  ministers 
present.^^  Bishop  Coke  on  taking  the  chair  presented 
his  credentials,  and  in  accordance  with  Mr.  Wesley's 
design,  says  Mr.  Asbury,  it  was  agreed  "to  form  our- 
selves into  an  Episcopal  Church  and  to  have  Superin- 
tendents, Elders  and  Deacons,"    The  laymen  did  not 

*•  Dr.  Bang's  "  Life  of  Garrettson,"  p.  146. 

50 


o 
< 

ro    rn 
>    t- 

r-     < 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

participate  in  this  convention  and  were  therefore  not 
bound  by  it,  but  the  new  form  of  church  government 
met  with  their  approval.  Dr.  Buckley  says:  ''The 
prayer-book  was  regularly  used  in  these  early  days  at 
least  once  on  Sundays.  Asbury  even  appeared  in 
canonicals,  but  sturdy  Jesse  Lee  rebuked  him  for  it 
and  the  gown  and  band  disappeared." 

The  Lovely  Lane  Church  in  Baltimore  is  no  more. 
It  was  torn  down  in  1787  by  William  Wilson  &  Son, 
tea  merchants,  whose  warehouses  on  what  was  Lovely 
Lane,  now  German  Street  extended,  were  partly  built 
of  its  materials.  These  warehouses  in  turn  have  dis- 
appeared and  the  ground  is  now  occupied  by  the  Mer- 
chants'  Club  on  German  Street  east  of  Calvert  Street. 
The  destruction  of  the  Lovely  Lane  Church  where  the 
actual  organization  of  the  Methodist  Church  took  place 
was  a  sacrilege  and  should  not  have  been  permitted. 

The  American  Methodist  Historical  Society  has 
placed  this  tablet  to  mark  the  spot:  "Upon  this  site 
stood  from  1774  to  1786  the  Lovely  Lane  Meeting 
House  in  which  was  organized  December,  1784,  The 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States  of 
America." 

Now  a  word  as  to  Methodism  itself.  As  your  late 
Chief  Justice  Lore  truly  said,  Methodism  is  easily  a 
leader  in  American  Protestantism. 

Methodism  and  Americanism,  so  to  speak,  are 
closely  akin. 

Each  was  a  protest  against  tyranny  and  corruption 

51 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

of  the  old  world.  The  one  against  religious  corrup- 
tion and  vice;  the  other  against  civic  corruption  and 
licentiousness. 

Each  repudiated  and  broke  loose  from  the  forms 
and  systems  of  the  old  world  and  started  on  new  lines, 
with  unbounded  freedom,  seeking  new  ideals  and 
higher  possibilities  of  human  development. 

The  psalmist  tells  us  to  ''Walk  about  Zion,  and  go 
round  about  her:  tell  the  towers  thereof.  Mark  ye 
well  her  bulwarks,  consider  her  palaces;  that  ye  may 
tell  it  to  the  generation  following.  "^^ — And  this  I  have 
endeavored  to  do.  To  use  the  eloquent  words  of  the 
Eev.  Frederick  Merrick:  "We  have  spoken  much,  and 
very  naturally  and  properly  of  Methodists  and  Meth- 
odism, of  Methodist  doctrines  and  Methodist  usages. 
It  could  not  have  been  otherwise.  We  have  spoken 
eulogistically,  perhaps  at  times  too  much  so,  but  let 
not  those  of  other  church  organizations  who  have 
heard  or  who  shall  read,  these  utterances,  deem  this  an 
evidence  of  a  narrow  sectarianism.  We  claim  to  be 
liberal — to  be  truly  catholic.  We  ought  to  be  so.  Not 
only  is  this  the  spirit  of  our  common  Christianity,  but 
it  was  eminently  the  spirit  of  our  founder.  To  all  who 
honor  and  love  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity  and 
truth,  we  say  Hail,  all  hail,  the  blessings  of  the  highest 
be  upon  you.  Gladly  will  we  join  hands  with  you 
against  the  common  foe,  fighting  the  good  fight  of 

"  Psalm  XLVIII :  12  and  13. 

52 


REV.  THOMAS  E.   MARTINDALE,   D.   D. 

MEMBER  OF  WILMINGTON  CONFERENCE.  HE  IS  THE  GREAT-GRANDSON  OF  PHILIP 
BARRATT.  HE  DISTINCTLY  REMEMBERS  HIS  GRANDMOTHER,  MIRIAM  BARRATT,  WHO 
MARRIED  JOHN  MARTINDALE.  HE  IS  (l91l)  PASTOR  OF  THE  ASBURY  METHODIST 
EPISCOPAL  CHURCH    AT   SALISBURY,    MD. 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

faith  until  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  have  become 
the  Kingdoms  of  our  Lord. 

When  Barratt's  Chapel  was  projected  a  prominent 
man  inquired  what  use  was  to  be  made  of  it.  Being 
informed  it  was  to  be  a  place  of  worship  for  the  Meth- 
odists, his  reply  was,  "It  is  unnecessary  to  build  such 
a  house,  for  by  the  time  the  war  is  over  a  corncrib  will 
hold  them  all."  History  shows  this  person's  fears 
were  not  realized.  No  corncrib  ever  constructed  could 
hold  even  a  fraction  of  them,  as  they  are  today  a  world- 
wide Christian  communion.  Its  regular  clergy  num- 
bers over  twenty  thousand,  its  actual  membership  over 
six  million,  four  hundred  and  seventy-seven  thousand, 
two  hundred  and  twenty-four  communicants,  and  its 
adherents  fifteen  millions  of  souls.  And  that  there 
may  yet  be  a  closer  communion  is  foreshadowed  by  the 
suggestion  of  Hon.  Kobert  W.  Perkes,  M.P.  for  Lin- 
colnshire, at  the  annual  conference  in  England  held  in 
London,  July  18,  1907,  viz:  "The  establishment  of 
Methodist  bureaus  in  all  parts  of  the  world  for  mutual 
aid." 

As  a  nation,  says  George  William  Curtis  in  his  ora- 
tion on  Mr.  Lowell,  we  did  not  invent  the  great  monu- 
ments of  liberty,  trial  by  jury,  the  habeas  corpus,  con- 
stitutional restraint,  the  common  schools,  of  all  of 
which  we  were  the  civilized  heirs  with  civilized  Chris- 
tendom. So  the  Episcopal  Church  did  not  create  epis- 
copacy, nor  extemporize  a  liturgy,  nor  invent  a  creed. 
To  apply  to  the  church  what  Mr.  Curtis  says  of  the 

53 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

state,  *'the  higher  spirit  of  conservatism  was  its  own 
and  it  cherished  a  reverence  for  antiquity,  a  suscepti- 
bility to  the  value  of  tradition,  an  instinct  for  contin- 
uity and  development,  an  antipathy  to  violent  rupture 
— the  grace  and  claim  of  an  established  order.  And 
can  we  not  say  this  is  equally  true  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  r^ 

The  time  has  now  arrived  when  the  trustees  of  Bar- 
ratt's Chapel,  through  their  Pastor  Eev.  F.  J.  Coch- 
ran, have  asked  permission  of  this  Wilmington  Con- 
ference to  raise  an  endowment  of  $50,000  and  place 
the  fund  in  charge  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and 
Church  Extension  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
to  insure  its  preservation  for  all  time.  This  object 
must  appeal  strongly  to  all  American  Methodists  when 
called  to  their  attention.  A  little  from  each  one  can- 
not fail  but  attain  the  sum  desired  from  the  Methodist 
Church  at  large,  because  Barratt's  Chapel  is  the  little 
crystal  spring,  the  source  from  which  flowed  the 
mighty  river  of  Methodism.^^ 

** "  American  Church  History,"  by  Chas.  C.  Tiffany,  p.  290. 

**At  Wibnington  Annual  Conference  held  March  17,  1911,  Judge 
Norris  S.  Barratt,  of  Philadelphia,  was  presented  to  the  Conference, 
and  spoke  with  reference  to  the  proposed  endowment  for  Barratt's 
Chapel.  The  bible  of  Judge  Andrew  Barratt,  used  in  the  Chapel  by 
Thomas  Coke,  Francis  Asbury,  Richard  Whatcoat,  Ezekiel  Cooper 
and  others  was  exhibited  for  Conference  examination. 

Rev.  F.  J.  Cochran,  Pastor  of  Barratt's  Chapel,  presented  the 
following : 

"  Whereas,  It  has  been  predicted  time  and  again  that  Barratt's 
Chapel  would  be  abandoned  as  a  place  of  worship  on  account  of  its 
proximity  to  other  churches,  which  have  been  erected  during  the 
nineteenth  century. 

54 


REV.   F.  J.  COCHRAN 

PASTOR   OF   BARRATT'S   CHAPEL,   1911 


I 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

Do  not  let  it  be  said  of  us  at  least  as  far  as  Barratt's 
Chapel  is  concerned: 

"  They  all  are  passing  from  the  land, 
Those  churches  old  and  gray, 

"  We  the  trustees  of  said  chapel,  desiring  to  provide  for  the  future 
prosperity  and  continuance  of  public  worship  at  this  place,  made 
sacred  by  the  pioneers  of  Methodism,  the  meeting  place  of  Bishop 
Thomas  Coke  and  Francis  Asbury,  the  place  in  America  where  the 
Sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper  was  first  administered  by  a  regularly 
ordained  minister  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  place 
at  which  announcement  was  made  of  the  First  General  Conference  of 
Methodist  ministers  now  called  the  '  Christmas  Conference,'  to  meet, 
which  they  did  on  Friday,  December  24,  1874,  at  Baltimore,  Md. 

"  Resolved,  That  acting  on  the  advice  of  our  pastor,  the  Rev.  F.  J. 
Cochran,  we  endeavor  to  obtain  an  endowment  for  Barratt's  Chapel, 
and  kindly  request  of  friends  and  the  church  at  large  their  approval 
and  cheerful  assistance  for  this  worthy  object. 

"  James  W.  Grier, 
"  William  E.  Davis, 
"  Caleb  B.  Williams, 
"  Robert  J.  Russell, 
"  Walter  S.  Camper, 
"  Luther  R.  Robbins, 
"  Trustees  Barratt's  Chapel  and  Cemetery. 
"  December  2,  1910. 

"  On  hearing  this  the  quarterly  conference  took  the  following 
action : 

*  We,  the  members  of  the  quarterly  conference  of  Magnolia  charge 
(of  which  Barratt's  Chapel  is  a  part)  in  quarterly  conference 
assembled,  December  19,  1910,  heartily  endorse  the  action  of  the 
trustees  of  Barratt's  Chapel,  December  2,  1910,  concerning  the  en- 
dowment for  the  chapel,  and  earnestly  recommend  the  Wilmington 
Annual  Conference  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  at  its  next 
session  in  Wilmington,  Delaware,  March  15,  1911,  to  favorably 
recommend  the  endowment  of  this  historic  place  to  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church  and  to  American  Methodism  in  general. 

"H.  C.  Johnson, 

"  Secretary. 
"R.  K.  Stephenson, 
"  District  Superintendent." 

55 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

In  which  our  forefathers  used  to  stand 
In  years  gone  by  to  pray." 

Our  ancestors  built  Barratt's  Chapel  and  helped  to 
organize  Methodism  for  love  of  God  and  desire  to  ben- 

Besolved,  That  the  Pastors  be  requested  to  bring  before  each  con- 
gregation Barratt's  Chapel  Endowment,  and  secure  free  wiU  offer- 
ings and 

Resolved,  That  we  request  the  District  Superintendents  to  present 
this  matter  to  at  least  one  of  the  Quarterly  Conferences  of  each 
charge  duiing  the  year. 

On  motion  of  R,  K.  Stephenson  the  resolution  was  adopted  as  read 
and  on  motion  of  W.  E.  Tomkinson,  the  funds  were  ordered  deposited 
with  the  Board  of  Home  Missions  and  Church  Extension.  (Journal 
Wilmington  Conference,  1911,  p.  31  and  38.) 

Philadelphia  Annual  Conference 
Park  Avenue  Church^  Philadelphia. 

Apternoon  Session,  Tuesday,  March  21,  1911. 

"Judge  Norris  S.  Barratt  and  F.  J.  Cochran  addressed  conference."* 

"'  From  the  Journal  of  the  Philadelphia  Conference,  124th  session, 
p.  85. 

The  Hon.  Norris  S.  Barratt,  Judge  of  Court  of  Common  Pleas  No.  2, 
Philadelphia,  and  F.  J.  Cochran,  pastor  of  Barratt's  Chapel,  were 
introduced  and  addressed  the  Conference." 

"Endowment  Plan  for  Barratt's  Chapel  Endorsed. — J.  D.  C. 
Hanna  presented  the  following,  which  was  adopted: 

"Resolved  1,  That  we  have  heard  with  great  pleasure  the  admirable 
historical  address  of  Judge  Norris  S.  Barratt,  and  the  address  of 
Rev.  F.  J.  Cochran,  and  we  are  in  full  sympathy  with  the  movement 
to  preserve  Barratt's  Chapel.  We  join  the  Wilmington  Conference 
in  endorsing  the  action  pertaining  to  the  Barratt's  Chapel  En- 
dowment." 

"Resolved  2,  We  recommend  to  the  pastors  that  they  present  this 
cause  to  each  of  their  congregations  during  the  year,  and  if  prac- 
ticable secure  a  free-will  offei*ing  for  the  same. 

"Resolved  3,  We  recommend  that  the  District  Superintendents 
present  the  subject  to  at  least  one  of  the  Quarterly  Conferences  of 
each  charge  during  the  year." 

56 


Barratt's  Chapel  and  Methodism. 

efit  man.  It  stands  today  a  shrine  reared  by  their 
work  and  self-denial  and  speaks  in  no  uncertain  tones 
to  the  American  Methodist  of  their  humility  and  faith. 
Methodists  will  never  forget  what  they  did  there.  The 
duty  of  Methodists  today  is  to  preserve  Barratt's 
Chapel,  the  cradle  of  Methodism,  that  it  may  always  be 
maintained  for  the  glory  of  God  with  all  its  thrilling 
associations  for  the  instruction  and  the  inspiration  of 
Methodists  yet  unborn. 

One  hundred  and  Twenty-Seventh  Session  of  Baltimore  Annual 
Conference — Sixth  Session,  Washington,  D.  C,  April  3,  1911. 

Barratt's  Chapel,  C.  M.  Levister  offered  the  following  resolution 
and  it  was  adopted. 

Resolved,  That  we  commend  the  purpose  of  the  Wilmington  and 
Philadelphia  Conferences  in  their  efforts  to  perpetuate  the  historic 
Barratt's  Chapel  through  a  sufficient  endowment,  and  that  we  will 
aid  them  in  this  laudable  endeavor  in  every  feasible  way. 

E.    L.    HUBBAKD, 

W.  W.  Barnes, 
C.  M.  Levister. 
(Journal  of  Conference,  1911,  p.  53.) 


57 


INDEX. 


A. 

Asbury  Church,  Wilmington,  Del., 
12,  54,  title  page 

Asbury,  Bishop  Francis,  3;  seats 
in  chapel,  18;  trustees  of  chapel, 
19;  personal  bible,  19;  arranges 
rules,  ib.;  preached  at  Furbee, 
23;  obtained  subscription  of  700 
cwt.  of  pork,  26;  address  of  the 
bishop  to  General  Washington, 
23 

Asbury,  journal  entries,  quoted, 
24,  26;  preaches  at  Barratt's 
Chapel,  26;  arrives,  31,  36; 
quoted,  37;  lodges  with  Andrew 
Barratt,  37;  extract  from  jour- 
nal, 38;  portrait,  39;  memorial 
tablet,  Eutaw  St.  Church,  40; 
persuades  Barratt  to  manumit 
slaves,  42;  preaches  at  Barratt's 
Chapel,  44;  journal  quoted,  47; 
mentioned,  49 ;  appears  in  canon- 
icals, 51;  Eev.  Ethan  Allen,  26 


Barratt's  Chapel  (Cradle  of 
Methodism),  3,  7;  simplicity  of, 
8;  situation  of,  16;  dimensions, 
17,  18;  dedication,  26,  35;  As- 
bury preaches,  37,  38;  portrait, 
38;  Andrew  Barratt  expends 
$1000,  44;  historic  facts,  50; 
quoted,  53;  endowment  to  be 
raised,  54;  trustees  appeal,  55; 
historic  address  of  Hon.  Norris 
S.  Barratt,  56;  resolution  en- 
dorsed by  Wilmington,  Phila- 
delphia and  Baltimore  Confer- 
ences, 57 

Brinckle,  Wm.,  5 


Boardman,  Eichard,  10,  11 

Barre,  Col.,  quoted,  15 

Bohemia  Manor,  19 

Bassett,  Eichard,  23,  35,  36;  por- 
trait, 36;  entertains  Coke,  47 

Buckley,  Eev.  James  M.,  33-37, 
51 

Brewer,  Mr.  Justice  David  J.,  32 

Bangs,  Dr.  Nathan,  4,  50 

Barnes,  W.  W.,  57 

Baltimore,  Lord,  26 

Barratt,  Sr.,  Philip,  in  America, 
1678^,  supposed  to  be  emigrant, 
19;  death  of,  20 

Barratt,  Philip,  4,  6;  environment, 
10;  birth,  20;  donates  ground 
for  Barratt's  Chapel,  16;  auto- 
graph, 17;  sheriff,  18-20; 
trustees  of  chapel,  19;  marries, 
in  Legislature  during  Eevolu- 
tion,  21,  22,  23;  owns  two  sloops, 
23;  determined  to  build  chapel, 
23-35;  death  of,  36,  37,  41,  43; 
homestead,  49 

Barratt,  Norris  S.,  genealogy,  6, 
27;  Conference  addresses,  56 

Barratt,  Sr.,  James,  portrait  of,  6 

Barratt,  Jr.,  James,  portrait  of, 
mention  of,  8 

Barratt,  Alfred,  portrait  of,  16 

Barratt,  Caleb,  portrait  of,  23; 
manumits  slaves,  43 

Barratt,  Dr.  Elijah,  portrait  of, 
43;  mentioned,  23;  built  chapel, 
Camden,  Delaware,  38 

Barratt,  Andrew,  of  Cecil  Co.,  Md., 
20 

Barratt,  Judge  Andrew,  of  Kent 
Co.,  Del.,  6,  23,  27,  35;  delegate 
to  Constitution  Convention,  1792, 


58 


Index. 


30;  executor,  36,  37,  41;  manu- 
mits slaves,  42;  records  of 
marriage  and  births,  43;  lawyer, 
sheriff,  1780-1792,  judge, 
speaker  of  Senate,  commissioner 
and  presidential  elector,  41 

Barratt,  Catharine,  19 

Barratt,  Eoger,  19;  marries,  20 

Barratt,  Miriam  S.,  5,  23,  36,  41, 
42;  entertains  Dr.  Coke  and 
Asbury,  49;  marries  Dr.  Edward 
White,  36 

Barratt,  Nathaniel,  23 

Barratt,  Lydia,  23 


Coke,  Thomas,  3;  seat  in  chapel, 
18,  36;  preached  at  Barratt 's 
Chapel,  45;  portrait,  47;  ap- 
pointed superintendent,  47;  dines 
at  Sister  Barratt 's,  49 

Cubley,  John,  5 

Curtis,  John,  5;  provincial  council- 
lor, 5 

Clark,  John,  Sr.,  5,  41;  father  of 
Ann  Clarke  Barratt 

Clark,  Eobert,  11 

Com  Exchange,  Philadelphia,  6 

Clark,  Adam,  11 

Conner,  Barratt,  P.,  20 

Conner,  James  Barratt,  20 

Conner,  Alvin  Barratt,  20 

Cook,  John,  22 

Cromwell,  Joseph,  26 

Cornbury,  Lord   (quoted),  27 

Chauncey,  Charles,  attacks  revival- 
ists, 40 

Clarke,  Ann,  41;  wife  of  Andrew 
Barratt 

Curtis,  George  Wm.  (quoted),  53 

Cochran,  Rev.  F.  J.,  to  raise  en- 
dowment, 54;  portrait,  55 

Colonial  Society  of  Pennsylvania,  5 

Carrall,  James,  35 

Carrall,  Chas.  Ridgeley,  35 

Cooper,  Eev.  Ezekiel,  49 


Conference    at    Wilmington,    Del., 

1911,  54 
Conference    at    Philadelphia,    Pa., 

1911,  56 
Conference  at  Washington,  D.  C, 

1911,  57 
Campes,  Walter  S.,  55 
Conrad,   Judge   Henry   C,   quoted, 

5,  6,  8,  9,  23,  35,  36,  41 


Dill,  Ellen  Leighton,  6 

Dill,  Abner,  5 

Dill,  Dr.  Eobert,  6;  Adjutant  gen- 
eral, 1812 

Dickinson,  John,  22 ;  portrait  of, 
28;  biographical  sketch,  29; 
farmer's  letters,  32 

Dequincy    (quoted),   27 

Davenport,  T.  A.  (quoted),  40 

Duncan,  Judge,  32 

Davis,  William  E.,  55 

E. 

Eyre,  Thomas,  4;  Penn's  agent,  5 
Emburg,  Philip,  10 
Ebenezer  M.  E.  Church,  Philadel- 
phia, 6 
Emerson,  Ealph  Waldo,  16 

F. 

Farrell,  Ann,  5 

Ford,  David,  11 

Furbee,  Caleb,  17,  23,  25 

Furbee,  Jonathan,  17 

Fisher,  Sydney  George,  quoted,  13 


George  III.,  form  of  prayer,  14 
Garrettson,    Freeborn,    18;    comes 

out  of  jail,  31,  47 
Gough,  Harry  Dorsey,  23,  35 
Glendenning,  Bro.,  exhorts,  25 
Green,  Philemon,  37 
Gray,  Andrew,  24,  42 
Gray,  Hon.  George,  42 


59 


Index. 


Gray,  Drumner,  42 
Grier,  James  W.,  55 

H. 

Heathered,  Thomas,  4;   refuses  to 

pay  taxes,  5 
Hunn,  Nathaniel;  5 
Hersey,  Isaac,  11 
Hayden,  Kev.  Horace  E.,  20 
Hartly,  Bro.,  exhorts,  25 
Hazzard,  David,  portrait,  30 
Hunn,  Mary,  43 
Hassler,  Isaac,  32 
Hanna,  J.  D.  C,  56 
Hubbard,  E.  L.,  57 

J. 

James,  Daniel,  17 
Johnny  Cake  Bridge,  24 
Justice  Hildas,  5 
Johnson,  H.  C,  55 

K. 

King,  John,  10,  11 


Lewis,  David,  17 

Lamp  of  Memory   (Euskin),  19 

Lovefeast  at  Barratt's,  25 

Locke,  John  (quoted),  27 

Liberty  of  vrorship  in  the  colonies, 

28 
Lockwood,  Kichard,  36 
Lowth,  Bishop,  refuses  to   ordain 

Methodists,  46 
Lovely    Lane     Church,     Christmas 

conference  at,  50 ;  picture  of,  51 ; 

destruction  of,  51 
Lee,  Jesse,  51 

Lednum,  Eev,  John,  4,  9,  35,  36 
Low,  Chief  Justice  Chas.  B.,  51 
Levister,  C.  M.,  57 
Little,  Chas.  J.,  10,  11 


M. 


Merritt,  William,  4 


McNatt,  John,  5 
Meigs,  William  M.,  15 
Montesquieu  (quoted),  12 
Meade,  Bishop  (quoted),  12 
McConnell,  Eev,  Dr.  (quoted),  10, 

12,  39,  46 
Merritt,  Jane,  19 
Merritt,  Thomas,  19 
Magaw,    Eev.    Samuel    (prays    at 

Barratt's),  24,  25 
McLane,  Allan    (portrait  of),  26; 

biographical  sketch,  27 
McKean,    Thomas,    32;    historical 

sketch,  33 
Methodist  doctrine,  John  Wesley's 

notes  and  sermons,  17 
Methodism  simply  societies,  45 
Methodism,  word  about,  51 
Merrick,   E«v.    Fred    (quoted),    52 
Mifflin,  Warner,  5 
Maryland  Society  Colonial  Wars,  5 
McMaster,  John  B.,  quoted,  10,  46 
Minutes  of  Council  Delaware,  22 
Mallory,  Eev.  Chas.  Payson,  36 
Martindale,  Eev.  Thomas  E.,  por- 
trait of,  52 

N. 

Neall,  Francis,  4 
Neall,  Samuel,  6 
Nock,  Thomas,  4 
New  Castle,  Del.,  introduction  of 

Methodism,  11 
North  British  Eeview  (quoted),  15 


Pattison,  Eobert  E.,  36 
Pennypacker,  S.  W.   (quoted),  9 
Pilmore,   Joseph,  Eev.,   3,   10,   11; 

portrait  of,  12 
Prayer  for  our  enemies,  14 
Purden,  Andrew,  17 
Price,  Joseph,  20 
Peddicord,  Bro.,  26 
Pennsylvania  peopled  by  different 

religions,  30 


60 


Index. 


Presbytery,  First  American,  30 
Perry  Hall  Mansion,  35 
Perry,  Wm.  Stevens,  13 
Pennsylvania  Society  Sons  of  the 

Revolution,  5 
Pennsylvania       Society       Colonial 

Wars,  5 
Perkes,  Hon.  Eobt.  W.,  53 

B. 

Eankin,  Thomas,  10,  11 
Robinson,  Miriam,  20 
Rodney,  Caesar  (letter  from),  21 
Rodney,   Thomas    (mentioned),   21 
Read,  George,  22 
Religious  toleration,  26 
Religious  liberty  in  Delaware,  29 
Ridgaway,    H.    B.,    eulogises    As- 

bury,  40 
Record  of  marriage  and  births,  43 
Reed,  Dr.  George  Edward,  15 
Roman  Catholics,  28 
Russell,  Robert  J.,  55 
Robbins,  Luther  R.,  55 
Ruskin,  John  (quoted),  19 

S. 

St.  George's,  Philadelphia,  4;  pic- 
ture of,  4;  synopsis  of  history, 
5 

Sipple,  Garrett,  5 

Stanley,  Dean  (quoted),  16 

Stille,  Dr.  Chas.  J.  (quoted),  &,  26 

Shadford,  Rev.,  11 

Strawbridge,  Robert,  10 

St.  Paul's  P.  E,  Church,  10,  25 

Sachse,  Julius  F.,  form  of  prayer, 
14,  27 

Sipple,  Waitman,  17,  18,  20,  23, 
25,  43 

Smith,  Captain  John,  7 

Smith,  Samuel,  17 

Sipple  Jonathan,  Coroner,  18 

Sewell,  Rev.  Richard,  20 


Sipple,  Miriam,  marries  Philip 
Barratt,  20 

Smithers,  Nathaniel  Barratt,  por- 
trait, 24 

Sipple,  Anna,  25 

Sipple,  Mary  Hunn,  25 

Smallwood,  Genl.,  arrests  Metho- 
dists, 34 

Stevens,  Rev.  Dr.  Abel,  4,  34,  36, 
46 

Simpson,  Bishop,  36 

Slaves,  manumitted,  42,  43 

Society  of  War  of  1812,  5 

Schenck,  Edwin,  35 

Stephenson,  R.  K.,  55,  56 

Scharf,  J.  Thos.  (quoted),  12,  20, 
24,  41,  42 

T. 

Tussey,  Isaac,  11 

Tiffany,  Rev.  Dr.  C.  C.  (quoted), 
14,  41,  54 

Townshend,  Charles  (quoted),  15 

Townsend,  George  Alfred  (quoted), 
19,  33 

Thoroughfare  Neck,  45 

Trustees,  Barratt 's  Chapel,  ap- 
peal, 55 

Todd,  Rev.  Robt.  W.,  19 

Tomkinson,  W.  E.,  56 


Updegraph  vs.  Commonwealth,  32 

V. 

Vasey,  Thomas,  46,  47 

W. 

Wilson,  James,  Sr.,  4 

Walker,  Richard,  5 

Williams,  Robert,  10,  11 

Wright,  Rev.,  11 

Webster,  Thomas,  11 

Wesley,    Rev.    John,    preaches    in 

Georgia,    10;    portrait    of,    10; 

memorial,     16;     notes     of,     17; 


61 


Index. 


sends  missionary,  31;  opposition 
to  revolution,  33,  reverence  for, 
46;  appoints  Dr.  Coke,  47;  men- 
tioned, 49 

"Wesley,  Charles,  Eev.,  preaches  in 
Georgia,  10;    mentioned,   13,  16 

Whitfield,  George,  preaches  in 
Georgia,  10;  mentioned,  45 

Whatcoat,  Eiehard,  47,  48 

Webb,  Thomas,  10;  apostle  of 
Methodism,  11 

Wakeley  (quoted),  32 

Watters,  William,  31 

White,  D.D.,  William,  15,  16 

White,  Dr.  Edward,  23,  36;  mar- 
ries Miriam  Barratt 


White,  Samuel,  35 

Wilmington,  Del.,  Methodism  in- 
troduced, 11;  assembly  meets, 
21 

White,  Thomas,  Judge,  23,  33; 
persecuted,  34,  35,  36 

Williams,  Eeynear,  17,  23 

"William's  Chance,"  17 

Wilson,   Justice    (quoted),   26 

Washington,  Genl.  George,  22;  as 
President,  22;  reverse  address 
from  bishops 

Wilmington,  Conference  at,  55 

Wilson,  William,  51 

Williams,  Caleb  B.,  55 


62 


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